


The Other Side

by Weisse_Rose



Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Bodyswap, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-13
Updated: 2018-12-06
Packaged: 2019-04-22 07:06:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 24
Words: 38,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14303445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Weisse_Rose/pseuds/Weisse_Rose
Summary: Chloe and Lucifer swap bodies. Hilarity ensues. Well, depending on who you ask.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Right, so, I really, really, didn't need another multichapter story but this damn plot bunny wouldn't leave me alone. Just tell me that this was a terrible idea and I can put it back in its cage. Thanks for your help.

"It can't be. What on earth is that doing here?"

Chloe reached out to pick up the strange-looking object that Lucifer had just spotted at their crime scene. 

"Don't touch it!", he yelled, voice panicky, jumping towards her from halfway across the room. Her fingers barely brushed along the surface of it just as Lucifer reached for it. She felt a jolt as if from an electric current, then everything went black.

* * *

Chloe awoke in a hospital bed, feeling groggy. Something was definitely _off_. She sat up, putting her hand to her temple. She had the mother of all headaches. She pulled her hand down slowly, then stopped, and stared at it, mouth hanging open. That was not her hand. Not her arm, either. She put both hands on her face, feeling the contour. That was definitely not her face either. Panic started to well up.

"Right. You're back. First things first, don't freak out."

She turned to the source of the voice and came face to face with herself. If she hadn't already been about to panic, this would definitely have done the trick.

The other Chloe raised a hand in a calming gesture. "I know this is all very confusing, detective, but please trust me and we will have this fixed in no time."

The woman was speaking with her voice, but with a British accent. Oh God. This just couldn't be. She was dreaming. Definitely dreaming.

"Lucifer?", she asked dazedly, then stopped in shock as she heard her own voice. She was hallucinating. That was the only possible explanation. She'd hit her head or something and now she was dreaming up some crazy nonsense. But _my God_ did it feel real. She chanced another glance at herself. The woman who looked like her was wearing a hospital gown, and looking at her as if she expected her to freak out any moment now.

"What the hell happened?", she asked, and finally realized what was wrong with her voice. She looked at her shaking hands again. Lucifer's hands. Lucifer's voice. Sans the accent.

"I'm not feeling well. I think I'm hallucinating. Can you get a doctor in here please?"

The woman who couldn't possibly be _her_ gave her a pitying look. "I'm afraid the doctors won't be able to help in this case. But I have a solution, just trust me."

Chloe looked at her own hands again, feeling the onset of what she could only describe as a panic attack. The woman sat down on the side of the bed, covering her (Lucifer's, she thought panicky, Lucifer's) much larger hands with hers (Mine. My hands).

"Listen to me, detective. This whole mess was caused by a divine artifact. It's used to collect and transport souls. You don't need to worry about the details. The point is, when we both touched it, there was some sort of mix-up and we ended up like this. Now, I think if we manage to retrieve it, and touch it again at the same moment, we should be back where we belong in no time. Easy peasy. Detective? Are you listening to me?"

"You're saying we- swapped- brains?", she said, trying to ignore the fact that she was freaking speaking with _Lucifer's_ voice. 

"Brain patterns, souls, no need to get into philosophical details. The point is, I can get us back to normal, if you trust me. Do you trust me?"

Chloe didn't even trust herself at the moment. She felt the sudden urge to giggle hysterically, but managed to push it down. Instead, she nodded. At herself.

"Right. So, what I need you to do is check out of the hospital. Tell them your name is Lucifer Morningstar, you're feeling fine, no, you don't want any scan of your brain or any other procedure to figure out what happened. Can you do that?"

Chloe nodded again. Yes, she could probably do that.

"Great. Good luck."

* * *

Chloe stared at the bundle of clothes in her hand. She had managed to check herself out of the hospital without any incident. She'd somehow convinced them that she was Lucifer Morningstar. Thank God nobody here actually knew Lucifer or they might have wondered about the accent. No way would she have gotten away with her British accent.

She stared at the clothes again. They had been returned to her, to get dressed and leave the hospital. She'd opened the hospital gown, and frozen in place, realizing she was undressing _Lucifer_. Now, she just stood there, unsure how to proceed. Was she making a terrible mistake? If all of this was a hallucination, wasn't it better to tell the doctors about it?

There was a knock on the door, and she'd never get used to hearing somebody else talk with her voice. It sounded so strange, like a recording of your own voice being played back at you. Come to think of it, Lucifer's voice sounded different than usual as well. What she heard when she spoke now was probably how he sounded to himself. Her head was starting to spin a little.

"Detective? Everything okay in there? I'm coming in."

She watched herself enter the room, and for a second she almost fainted as the whole reality of what was happening to her came crashing down on her again. She'd never truly appreciated how tall Lucifer really was until this moment. She looked down on herself, wondering if she had turned insane. And if she'd turned insane, was she really Lucifer who had started thinking like her or was she still herself and imagined that she looked like Lucifer?

"Detective? Stop thinking about it. It won't help. Just go with it. One step at a time. Just get dressed, then let's get out of here and track down the artifact."

Chloe nodded. Right, get dressed. She looked down at the hospital gown she was wearing, suddenly very much aware of the naked body underneath. It wasn't just the height. Everything felt different. Her chest, and, well, other parts. She felt stronger, leaner. She felt like she could throw a car if she wanted to.

"Don't be shy, there's really nothing there that I haven't seen before. Actually nothing you haven't seen before either."

Right. Yes. Get dressed. She took off the hospital gown, putting it down on the bed. Then she made the big mistake of looking down at herself. She touched Lucifer's hand to his chest, needing a tactile confirmation that this was real. It certainly felt real. She drew her hand over the smooth skin and her thought process derailed completely. All of a sudden, her awareness of _Lucifer's_ body heightened, and she felt the skin heating up under her hand. She gasped. She tried to think of something else to distract herself, but it was too late. Lucifer's body was showing a very visible reaction to where her mind had just wandered off to. She put her hand over her eyes, wishing she could sink into the floor.

"Well, that certainly looks- different, from this perspective. Maybe I was too hasty when I said we should remedy this situation immediately. Maybe you should take some time to explore. You definitely have my permission." On the last two sentences, she heard her own voice take on a seductive, almost lecherous quality that was very much _Lucifer_. Hearing it in her own voice was strange, to say the least. 

__She shook her head, and got dressed as quickly as possible. Her current situation didn't make it any easier, but she managed._ _

__"Great, now you should get me dressed." He dropped the pile of clothes she'd been wearing to the crime scene on the bed._ _

__"What?"_ _

__"Get me dressed. I'll keep my eyes closed."_ _

__Chloe gaped at him. "So, let me get this straight, I should go _explore_ , but you'll keep your eyes closed while I dress you? Where's the logic in that?"_ _

__"Well, obviously, the difference is that I have given you permission. This is still your body. I'm not doing anything without your consent. Taking your clothes off is something that needs your consent, don't you think?"_ _

__Chloe pondered this for a moment. "I'm okay with you getting dressed yourself."_ _

__"Are you sure?"_ _

__"Well, you're _in my body_. I think seeing it naked will be unavoidable at some point." She couldn't believe that this was actually happening. She was going to wake up any moment now. _ _

__"As I said, we should be able to get this fixed in no time. All we have to do is find the artifact."_ _

__"Lucifer?"_ _

__"Yes?"_ _

__"If we find the artifact, or whatever, and touch it, and nothing happens, then we'll get ourselves recommitted to the hospital. Deal?"_ _

__"Well, well, well. Look who's only been in my skin for a couple of hours and is already trying to make deals."_ _

__"Lucifer!"_ _

__"Fine. You have a deal. If it doesn't work, we can have ourselves committed again. Not that it is going to do us any good, mind you."_ _

__He got dressed quickly, taking care to look at himself as little as humanly possible in the process. Chloe had to laugh at the absurdity of their situation. Lucifer raised an eyebrow at her and made a face that she couldn't even describe, but which was very much _him_ , only it was on _her_ face, and suddenly she burst out laughing, unable to contain herself. Lucifer gave her a glance that was half-amusement, half-worry. She just waved him off, continuing to laugh until her stomach hurt. When she finally stopped she felt a little better._ _

__"Right, let's get this mess sorted out then, shall we?"_ _


	2. Chapter 2

As her car was still parked at the crime scene, they had to take a cab from the hospital.

She banged her head on the frame while entering it, cursing quietly.

"Hey. Be careful with that, will you."

She sat down, rubbing her head. Well, Lucifer's head. Oh God, this wasn't happening. "Well, it's not my fault you're freakishly tall."

The driver looked at them with an expression of _Oh great. Crazy people. Another day in L.A._

"We're rehearsing for a play. Don't mind us", Lucifer told him. The driver shrugged as if he couldn't care less what they were doing, as long as it didn't affect him or his cab. Chloe gave him the address of their crime scene.

Chloe clenched and unclenched her right fist, still confused by this feeling of immense strength. Sure, he was stronger than her, but he couldn't be _that_ much stronger, could he? She stared at her closed fist. She felt as if she could punch a hole through the seat in front of her easily. She noticed Lucifer looking at her worriedly.

He sighed. "I _am_ the devil, you know."

"Lucifer, stop. I really can't deal with your Luciferness on top of everything else right now."

"I think you've already seen plenty of my _Luciferness_ today." He wiggled _her_ eyebrows at her suggestively and it was just too much. Chloe felt the panic bubbling up again and pushed it down. _Don't think about it. Just don't think about it. Everything will be back to normal in no time._ "On a more serious note, do me a favour and don't think about wings. Or flying."

" _What_?"

"Nevermind. I guess the chances of you thinking about it were lower before I mentioned it."

Lucifer's phone rang. No, actually that was her phone. In her jacket. Which was on her body. Lucifer retrieved the phone and looked at the caller ID. He answered, switching into a flawless imitation of her accent from the very first syllable. Chloe stared at him. If she hadn't known any better, she could have sworn it was herself talking.

"Hey Dan. I guess you heard what happened." There was a pause as he listened to Dan. "I'm fine, no, they don't know. It was a very strange incident." He paused again, listening. "No, I don't think there is any need to worry Trixie. We've already been released from the hospital. Hm-hmm. We're going back to the crime scene." He rolled his eyes, mimicking a talking mouth with his hand. "Don't worry, we're _fine_. Bye."

Chloe still stared at him. "What?", he said, tucking away her phone. 

"How come you can do a perfect American accent?"

He smiled at her smugly. That, too, looked completely out of place on her face. "I can do every accent perfectly." She rolled her eyes at him. Well, technically, his eyes. "I suppose I better stick to this one for the time being to avoid questions", he added regretfully. He looked at her. "And it's probably best if you let me do the talking, as your British accent wouldn't fool a deaf Scotsman." She glared at him, but couldn't really argue the point. 

"You shutting up for once will be only marginally less suspicious", she grumbled. He gave her a surprised, and possibly a little hurt, look. "Sorry", she added hastily, "I think this whole situation has made me a little grumpy."

"It's a good thing we're already on our way to get it fixed then, isn't it?", his voice sounded a little strained. Well, her voice. Oh God, why had this happened to her? _How_ had this happened to her?

Chloe closed her eyes, leaning back in her seat. It didn't feel like a dream. She was definitely awake. It didn't feel like she was hallucinating either, but then again, people probably didn't realize when they were hallucinating, did they? She just wanted to be back to normal. She wanted it so badly she'd even gone along with Lucifer's plan, even though his explanation hadn't made any sense, as usual. But somehow things always worked out with him. Hopefully, it would be the same this time.

The cab came to a stop and she found some cash in Lucifer's wallet to pay the driver. She managed to get out without hitting her head on anything, which she counted as a success.

"Good luck with your play. It certainly seemed ... interesting." The driver said sarcastically, then drove off.

They stood next to each other in front of the house for a moment, mentally preparing themselves to face her colleagues.

"Right. Remember, no talking", Lucifer said, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Or at least, that's what he meant to do. His hand bumped somewhere against her upper back. He'd failed completely to take their reversal in relative height into account when reaching out. Chloe grinned down at him.

"You know, I could get used to towering above you."

He glared at her. His composure failed him for a brief moment, and it seemed to her that he wasn't as comfortable in her skin as he pretended to be. He shifted from foot to foot uneasily, and she got the distinct impression that he was just as rattled by this whole thing as she was. He was simply hiding it better. It made her feel a little better about how freaked out she was herself.

Lucifer took a deep breath, and it was almost like he put a mask back on, his stance shifting to once more reflect his usual confidence. 

"Showtime."


	3. Chapter 3

Lucifer strode into the living room, Chloe following close behind. Ella jumped up from where she'd been inspecting something on the floor the second she saw them.

"You're back", she all but yelled. 

She gave Lucifer a hug first. Well, from her perspective, she was giving Chloe a hug. Lucifer returned the embrace a little awkwardly, trying to make it look natural. After a moment, Ella pulled back, furrowing her brow. Then she shook her head, turning to Chloe, giving her the same treatment. Chloe stood frozen in place, imitating Lucifer's usual behaviour when on the receiving end of one of Ella's trademark hugs.

"I'm so happy you two are okay. I've been trying to figure out what happened ever since you got taken to the hospital. There is no trace of any airborne substance, nothing carrying electrical current, no traps, nada. The thing you touched seems to be completely ordinary, for all I can tell. I have to take a closer look in the lab. To sum up, I have no idea why the two of you passed out at the exact same time."

Lucifer nodded. "And how does that make you feel?"

Ella looked up from where she had been busy examining the floor again. "What?", she asked, confusion evident in her voice.

"We talk about our feelings, don't we?", Lucifer said, giving Chloe a smug look saying _See? I've got this_. Chloe put her right hand in front of her eyes, groaning inwardly. 

"Um, sure? I guess? Okay, I'd say it makes me feel annoyed because I'm usually quick at figuring out things like this and I hate having no idea what's going on."

"Where's the box?", Chloe said, then clapped her hand in front of her mouth. _Shit_.

"What happened to your accent?", Ella asked, looking from her to Lucifer and back, as if she suspected the two of them were having some sort of joke at her expense.

Chloe had a sudden inspiration. Lucifer got away with _a lot_ of weirdness on a regular basis. She could use that to her advantage.

"I'm trying out something new. Like it?"

Ella shook her head. "If I can be honest, I don't think it works for you."

"Yeah? Well, I'm sticking with it. Coming back to my original question, what happened to the small box we were touching when we passed out?"

"Already bagged and on its way to the precinct." Of course it was. Things couldn't just be _easy_ for once, could they?

Lucifer made a frustrated groan, and Ella gave him a strange look. Lucifer cleared his throat. "Right. I think it's best if we had another look at it. Are you coming, detec- Lucifer?"

"Don't you want to hear first what I found out about our murder victim?" Ella asked, completely confused. By the looks of it, they had already failed at their charade spectacularly, not even managing to fool one person for all of five minutes.

Lucifer made an exasperated sigh, then caught himself. "Yes, of course, we want to hear everything about the murder victim. Solving this murder is the most important thing to us right now."

Ella narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously, then shook her head again, apparently deciding that she didn't care what the hell was going on with the two of them. 

She gave them a quick summary of what she thought happened here, walking through the room as she spoke, pointing out the evidence she'd uncovered. Chloe found she had trouble giving Ella her full attention. She was busy thinking _Remember, you're Lucifer. Act like Lucifer._ while simultaneously keeping an eye on the actual Lucifer, scared he was going to embarrass her in front of her colleagues. There was also the fact that she still wasn't entirely sure all of this was really happening. 

She snapped out of her reverie to find Ella looking at the two of them expectantly. _Crap_. She turned to Lucifer, who was staring at Ella with a blank expression. By the looks of it, his mind had wandered off somewhere else as well.

She sighed. "Listen, Ella, I think we're still a bit preoccupied with what happened to us earlier. Would you mind postponing this?" _A bit preoccupied_. Understatement of the year.

Ella nodded, her expression changing from suspicion to worry. "Are you two okay?"

"We're fine. We just want to know what happened."

Ella brightened up immediately. "Then I'll do my very best to figure that out for you." She went back to what she'd been doing when they entered, a thorough examination of the area where they had passed out earlier. If Lucifer was right, it wouldn't lead to anything, but, hey, you never knew. Maybe there was some explanation for all of this that actually made sense. She had no idea what that would look like though.

Lucifer walked over to her. She'd never get used to looking down at herself while talking to him. Hopefully she wouldn't have to. He looked up at her, apparently thinking along similar lines.

"Do you ever get neck pain from doing this all day? I think I never quite realized how tiny you really are."

"Excuse me? I'm far from _tiny_."

"Nevermind. Let's get to the precinct as quickly as possible and finally get this thing sorted."

"I couldn't agree more."


	4. Chapter 4

The car lurched forward suddenly, then slowed down again.

"Should I drive?", she asked, grinning smugly. 

Lucifer made a small noise of frustration. "It's not my fault that you're too short to drive properly."

"Excuse me? _I_ never had trouble driving before."

They stopped abruptly as Lucifer once again misjudged the pressure he was putting on the brake with his foot.

"Yeah? Well, my feet are not where they're supposed to be! Everything's different!" He sounded incredibly frustrated, with a hint of panic thrown in. While it was comforting that he was just as affected by their situation as she was, it really wouldn't help matters if he started freaking out now, in the middle of traffic.

"Hey, it's not for much longer, okay?"

He grumbled his agreement, focussing on getting them to the precinct without an accident.

* * *

They went straight to the evidence locker. Lucifer was able to check out the box without problems. They went to Ella's lab, closing the blinds. 

Lucifer placed the bag with the box on the floor and sat down next to it.

"Right. Now, it is imperative that we touch it at _exactly_ the same moment."

Chloe kneeled down next to him. "Why are we doing this on the floor?"

Lucifer shrugged. "I thought if we pass out again, we won't have so far to fall."

Chloe nodded. "Very thoughtful."

Lucifer opened the bag and turned it around, letting the small box fall to the floor, careful not to touch it in the process. Chloe had a closer look for the first time. There was a beautiful, intricate pattern woven across the surface of it. It really was a work of art. There was something fascinating about it that she couldn't quite put her finger on.

"On three", Lucifer said, catching her eye. She nodded.

"One."

"Two."

"Three."

They touched the box at exactly the same time.

Nothing happened.

They looked at each other, recognizing matching expressions of rising panic in their own eyes.

They continued touching the box for several more moments.

Nothing continued to happen.

"I was wearing gloves last time. Maybe if you put on gloves?"

Lucifer nodded as if he didn't really believe it would make a difference but was willing to give anything a shot at this point. He found a pair of the blue vinyl gloves in one of the drawers in the lab. He put them on and they repeated the same steps.

Still, nothing happened. Chloe felt the onset of panic setting in, and took several deep breaths in an effort to calm herself. It would all be fine. They would figure this out and things would go back to normal. She had a sudden thought.

"Somebody bagged this, but we haven't heard anything about anybody else passing out. Are you sure it was this thing that made us- made us-" She couldn't bring herself to say _swap bodies_ because the idea was just too ridiculous. "-like we are now?"

Lucifer hummed, staring at the box, deep in thought.

"Lucifer? Do you think we broke it somehow?"

He looked up, meeting her eyes, and she could see that that was _exactly_ what he thought.

She ran her hand through her hair in frustration. Well, what currently constituted _her_ hair. "Great. You don't happen to know any celestial item repair shops, do you?", she asked, voice dripping with sarcasm.

He looked like he was actually considering her question. "Not on this continent, no."

"Not on _this_ continent?"

He poked the box with his index finger, ignoring her question. He glared up at the ceiling. "Are you having fun? Hmm?"

"Lucifer."

He continued staring a hole in the ceiling. "What grand scheme is this? A change in perspective for the good ole devil? Yeah? Well, I'm used to being on the receiving end of your _plans_ but you could have left _her_ out of it!" There was real venom in his voice on the last part, and barely suppressed anger.

" _Lucifer._ "

His eyes snapped down, finally meeting hers. "What?"

"You promised we would get help if the box didn't work."

He threw his hands up in frustration. "I should never have agreed to that! I was _sure_ it would work."

"Lucifer. You _promised_."

He looked at her with a pleading puppy dog expression. It usually worked for him, but on her own face it just looked comical. She narrowly avoided bursting out laughing.

"They will commit us to the insane asylum and we will never get out of there again", he said pleadingly.

Chloe rubbed her hands (his hands, these are his hands, she thought, panic bubbling up again) over her face, then ran them through her hair.

"I don't see us having any other option at this point."

He looked thoughtful for a moment. "Would it be fine with you if we saw Linda instead of going to the hospital? She is aware of my- situation, so to speak. I think she will be of more help." 

Chloe lifted her hands up in a helpless gesture. "I guess. She's good at her job. But I'm not sure if she can help with-" She gesticulated wildly between the two of them "-this."

"Let's give her a chance, yes?"

She nodded, feeling lost and out of place. She stood up, absent-mindedly brushing some dust off of Lucifer's suit pants.

"And we're taking this with us", Lucifer said, pocketing the box. She couldn't find it in herself to argue with him about taking evidence out of the precinct.

She opened the lab door. It caught on something on the floor, and Chloe pulled on it with more force, frustrated with the whole situation and the bloody door in particular. Great, now she was starting to _sound_ like Lucifer as well.

With a loud crack, the door broke out of its hinges. Taken completely by surprise, Chloe threw it to the side in reflex. The door _flew_ through the air, crashing into the wall with a loud bang, leaving a big dent. Chloe stared at it, frozen in place, her mouth hanging open. There was _no way_ Lucifer was that strong. She hadn't even pulled on it with her full strength! This simply wasn't possible.

Lucifer came to stand next to her nonchalantly, regarding her handiwork. He tsked. "You really need to work on those anger issues, detective. Now I'll have to pay for this damage. Let's hope that door didn't land in any vital piece of evidence." He looked at her, a mischievous sparkle in his eye.

Chloe just stared at him, completely baffled. "How- how did that happen?"

"I'm a lot stronger than I look", he said smugly.

Chloe looked from him to the door and back again, wishing fervently that things would just go back to normal. She didn't think she could deal with much more of this.

"Hey", Lucifer said softly, catching on to her darkening mood. "At least we still got each other, right? A bit more of each other than we should have, but I'm certain we can get that fixed."

She knew her own voice very well and thought that he didn't sound nearly as certain as she would have liked him to be.


	5. Chapter 5

Chloe took some time to explain the damages and pay for the repairs. Lucifer waited impatiently, eager to do _something_ to get them out of their current predicament.

Chloe finally walked over to him. He made a beeline for the door. She put a hand on his arm, stopping him.

"Wait."

"What now?", he asked impatiently.

She shifted from foot to foot. "There is something I need to do first."

He sighed. "Well, then get on with it."

She looked uncertain, still hopping from foot to foot. Lucifer made a movement with his hand, conveying _out with it_.

"I have to pee", Chloe mumbled, blushing. Lucifer couldn't recall ever blushing in his life, and didn't think the look suited him very well. He raised an eyebrow. 

"So? Do you need instructions on how to get to the men's room? It's right next to the ladies'."

"It's not that. I'll have to- you know- touch-" She subtly indicated her crotch, blushing furiously, and Lucifer decided that the look might have something endearing about it after all.

His eyebrow went up even further. "It doesn't bite, you know. Besides, I've already given you free reign to do as you please with all of my body parts, so I'm not sure what else you're waiting for."

She drew her hand through her hair, unsure herself what exactly she was waiting for. "Fine, I'll go."

Lucifer leaned against a nearby desk, and waited. And waited. He checked Chloe's phone at some point, certain that she had been gone more than fifteen minutes already. He waited some more, until he was sure that nobody besides Chloe was in there, then entered the men's room.

He didn't see her at the urinals, so she must be in one of the stalls.

"Chloe?"

"Go away", she said, sounding embarrassed.

"Chloe? Whatever it is, there is no need to be ashamed about it. Let me help."

"Go away", she repeated, a little more forcefully this time. "Somebody might see you in here." 

"Yeah? Well, I certainly hope you're looking forward to explaining to your colleagues why you were hanging out in the men's room, because I'm staying right here until you open that door." 

There was a rustling of movement on the other side, then he heard the click of the door unlocking. He went inside, locking the door again behind him. There was barely enough space in the small room to fit both of them. He tried to look around Chloe's currently bigger form to see what was going on.

"Now, what seems to be the problem. Ah."

"It won't go away", Chloe said, her head leaning against the bathroom wall, her arms crossed defensively.

She was staring angrily at the erection that was keeping her from doing what she had come here to do.

"Yeah, you'll have trouble peeing like that", Lucifer stated drily. "May I inquire how this happened?"

Chloe threw her arms up in frustration. "I don't know. I guess I started- you know- thinking about certain parts of your anatomy, and then when I touched it, it just- Look, it's not like I did this on purpose!" She sounded like she would very much have liked to vanish into the floor.

"Detective. There really is no need for you to be ashamed of getting aroused while so intimately confronted with my well-sculpted, and, I might add, well-endowed, physique."

Chloe chuckled, in spite of the situation. "Right. Like your ego needed any more stroking."

A small grin appeared on Lucifer's face. Chloe raised an eyebrow at him. "If you make a pun about _stroking_ right now, I swear to God, I will punch you."

"Temper, temper, detective. You do realize that you would only be hurting yourself, right?" He paused for a moment, considering. "But, in all seriousness, if you want to rid yourself of your current state, I know a very quick way. Multiple ones, actually. I could assist you, if you like. As someone who has had sex with myself on multiple occasions, let me assure you, the experience is quite pleasing."

Lucifer was certain he saw his cock twitch at the suggestion, but Chloe shook her head fervently. "No. We're not doing- that. And especially not in the bathroom at work. No. I'll just hold it, until this goes away on it's own."

"Suit yourself", Lucifer said, shrugging.

They heard somebody enter. Chloe put her index finger to her lips, indicating for him to be silent. They waited for what seemed like an eternity, awkwardly standing in the small space. They heard the door open and close once more, and everything was silent again.

Lucifer unlocked the stall door, stepping out. Just as he was about to leave, the door opened, and Dan entered. They looked at each other for a long moment. Dan's expression betrayed slight confusion, whereas Lucifer kept his carefully blank.

"Chloe?", he asked incredulously, his gaze moving to the urinals, reassuring himself that he hadn't chosen the wrong door by mistake. 

"Dan", Lucifer said by way of greeting, giving the other man a pat on the shoulder as he walked past.

Dan furrowed his brow, staring after him, then his gaze swept over to the stall in which Chloe was still standing. There was no way he hadn't seen her. _Shit_ , she thought, stepping out as nonchalantly as possible. Dan's eyebrows rose almost to his hairline. Chloe could see the gears in his head start to turn, going through the very limited number of possible reasons why the two of them could have been in the bathroom together. _Shit_.

Then his gaze travelled downward, only to immediately snap back up to her face. She was sure her current state was quite visible through the suit pants she was wearing. _Shit, shit, shit._ She really didn't need Dan to think she was having sex with Lucifer. At the precinct. Although, to be fair, this looked more like she'd left before anything happened.

"Um", Dan said.

"Da- Detective Douche", Chloe said, giving him a broad grin that she hoped was similar to Lucifer's.

"Do I even want to know?" Dan asked, swallowing.

Chloe shook her head. "Trust me, you really don't." With that, she tried to make her escape.

"What happened to your accent, man?"

" _Really_? _That's_ what you want to know about?"

Dan looked at her as if he had no idea what the hell was going on there, but was definitely sure that he'd rather be anywhere else right now.

"Um", he said again.

Chloe rolled her eyes and walked out, closing the door behind her with a bang. At least it remained in its hinges.


	6. Chapter 6

"Let me get this straight."

Linda pointed at Chloe, who, from her perspective, looked like Lucifer. "You're Chloe." She moved her index finger to point at the person sitting next to the detective on the couch. "And you're Lucifer."

Both people on the couch nodded in unison. Linda shook her head. "No. Nah-ah. No."

"I know how it sounds, but it's the truth. You have to believe us", Chloe said, desperate for somebody to understand and accept their situation, possibly even offer some form of advice.

Linda rubbed her hand over her face, taking a deep breath. Then she sat up straight again, crossing her legs. "Fine. Moving on. You said this happened because of some divine soul-exchange-box?"

"That's not even close to what I said", Lucifer protested, while Chloe started speaking at the same time. "That's what Lucifer thinks. But there must be a real explanation, right?" She didn't like the pleading tone in her own voice one bit. Well, Lucifer's voice, actually.

Linda narrowed her eyes. "Wait a minute. You mean you still haven't told her?"

Lucifer looked sheepish for a moment.

"She's occupying your _body_ at the moment and she still doesn't know? You don't see that as the tiniest bit problematic? Dangerous, even?"

Lucifer shrugged his shoulders apologetically. "I didn't want to add to the strangeness of the situation. I think switching bodies with another _human_ is shocking enough, without adding-" He vaguely gestured to his own body sitting next to him. "- all of _that_ in the mix."

Chloe looked from Lucifer to Linda and back again, narrowing her eyes. "Anybody care to tell me what you two are on about?" She shifted on the couch restlessly, crossing and uncrossing her legs. _God_ , she really had to pee. Wasn't her life already uncomfortable enough at the moment without adding this cherry on top of the sundae?

Mirroring her gesture, Linda looked from her to Lucifer, and back, then closed her eyes for a second. "Sorry, I'm having a bit of trouble keeping straight who I'm talking to." She opened her eyes again suddenly. "Wait, how come you're both speaking with Chloe's accent?"

Lucifer rolled his eyes. "Doctor, we've been over this. I know all the accents, and all the languages. As Freud said, 'Es ist unmöglich, die Menschen zu kennen, ohne die Macht der Worte zu kennen.' Not the most interesting thing he ever said to me by far, mind you."

Chloe stared at him, mouth agape. "Was that _German_? I didn't know you speak German."

"Lucifer." Linda suddenly sounded very serious. "I think it's time. How do you expect Chloe to go along with whatever crazy solution you find for this if she doesn't even believe your explanation of the cause? I mean, I have trouble believing it, and I _have_ the necessary context." She sighed and turned to Chloe. "Would you mind giving us a minute?"

"Not at all", Chloe said, relieved. She would go and use the bathroom in the hall. How difficult could it be to pee? This was getting ridicolous. Once the door was closed behind her, Linda gave Lucifer a look. He shook his head vehemently. Linda sighed, again.

"I'm not sure what exactly you expect me to do here."

Lucifer shrugged. "I don't know. Tell Chloe to go along with my plans because you're convinced it's her best shot at getting better? Which is actually the truth."

Linda rubbed her hand over her forehead. "And to imagine, I used to think 'You're a therapist in L.A., you've seen it all.' And then you with your-" She gestured around her face. "-and now this."

"Never a boring day in the life of Lucifer Morningstar", Lucifer said with a fake cheerfulness which immediately turned on all of Linda's alarm bells.

"How do you feel about all of this?"

"Peachy. Just peachy."

" _Lucifer_."

Lucifer stood up suddenly, starting to pace the room as he spoke. "Well, how do you expect me to feel, doctor? I'm suddenly a frail, weak, tiny _human_ , and not only that, it had to be the _detective_ of all people, making things that much more complicated, and I don't even know what he-" He pointed at the ceiling, fuming, "-what he is trying to tell me this time. I mean, his messages are always cryptic, but now he's just taking the piss if you ask me. Maybe he got bored with toying around with his humans and needed some new entertainment."

He stood there, catching his breath after finishing his rant.

"Why are things more complicated because it's the detective?", Linda asked calmly.

"Because- Because- They just are."

Linda lifted up her hands in a calming gesture. "Let's try a different angle. What are your next steps?"

Lucifer pinched the bridge of his nose, the very picture of frustration. "I don't know. I didn't have any plans past touching the box."

"What's wrong with it?"

"I don't know. It just doesn't work anymore."

"Maybe it's energy is- I don't know- depleted? Maybe it can be recharged?"

Lucifer looked at her as if she had lost her mind. Which was quite ironic, considering he was the one who claimed to have switched bodies with his partner.

" _Sure_ , I'll just plug it in somewhere-" There was a look of dawning realization on his face, which she was quite familiar with by now. "-actually that's not such a bad idea. Thank you, doctor." With that, he stormed out. Linda looked after him for a moment, wondering when this had become her _normal_.

* * *

"Detective!" Lucifer yelled through the closed door. "C'mon. We don't have time for your shenanigans. I have an idea we need to try."

"Leave me alone", came the muffled reply from the other side of the door.

Lucifer sighed. "Fine, we have time to take care of your situation first. Just open the door and let me help."

The door opened apruptly, causing Lucifer, who had been leaning against it, to lose his balance and almost fall.

"I told you, we're _not_ doing that."

"Why not?", Lucifer asked, actually curious.

"Because it would be- weird. I'd be having sex with _myself_."

Lucifer's eyebrows shot up. "You're honestly trying to tell me you've never had sex with yourself?"

Chloe blushed a deep shade of red. "We're not discussing my sex life, or lack thereof, _thank you very much_. Now, do you have anything to say that's actually helpful or are you just gonna keep mocking me?"

"Detective!" Lucifer actually managed to sound hurt. "I would _never_." He cocked his head to the side, thinking. "You could try picturing something that's a real turn-off. Disgusting, even. Remember that gruesome crime scene we saw two weeks ago? That should do the trick."

"That- might actually be helpful for once. Thank you." She closed the door in his face.

Lucifer stared at the closed door. " _For once_?", he repeated, affronted. "I'll have you know, I'm the very picture of helpfulness."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Es ist unmöglich, die Menschen zu kennen, ohne die Macht der Worte zu kennen._ translates, roughly, to _It is impossible to understand mankind without understanding the power of words._


	7. Chapter 7

Lucifer stopped in his tracks, and turned around, annoyed.

"What is it _now_?"

Chloe had slowed down and looked over her shoulder for the third time in the last couple of minutes. She lifted up her hands in a gesture of helplessness.

"I don't know. I keep having this weird sensation of a weight on my back, but when I check, there's nothing there."

"That's normal. Don't worry about it."

"That doesn't sound normal to me." There was a sudden look of disgust on her face. "Please don't tell me this is a symptom of some weird STD you've contracted."

Lucifer sounded affronted. " _I beg your pardon_. I don't have any diseases, sexually transmitted or otherwise."

"Then what the hell is going on with your back?" She reached up a hand to rub along the shoulder blades, irritated by the sensation of something being there and not being there at the same time. She suddenly remembered something, and cringed. "It's not related to your scars, is it?"

"It would be fair to say that the feeling and the scars are related, yes."

"Oh God, Lucifer, I'm so sorry. That was very insensitive of me. I-"

Lucifer lifted up his hands in a calming gesture. "Don't worry about it. Just, please, do us all a favour, and stop thinking about it. Trust me. Thinking about it too much will only make things worse."

"Okay. Fine. I'll try. You can distract me by explaining your _plan_ , if it deserves to be called that, one more time."

Lucifer glared at her, irritated, not liking the sarcasm one bit.

"Testy, are we?" He grinned. "Maybe that's because you now have tes-" 

" _Lucifer_ ", she hissed, having reached the end of her rope, "No more bad puns. No more jokes. No more making light of the situation. Can we please take this seriously? I don't know if you've noticed but I'm freaking out a little over here."

Lucifer stopped, closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. "My apologies, detective. I might have been a little insensitive as well. The puns, they, ah, help me-"

"I know, I'm sorry. This is all a bit much." She rubbed her hands over her face, feeling worn out and exhausted, and completely _done_ with this whole mess.

She lowered her hands, and was surprised when Lucifer caught them in his own. She looked down at their hands, his currently much smaller ones cradling hers. She sighed, closing her eyes.

"Okay, let's do this. What are we doing again?"

"We're going to a church, so my father can deign himself to restore this box to working order."

Chloe nodded slowly. "I see. And why did I agree to go along with this?" She let go of Lucifer's hands to absent-mindedly scratch between her shoulder blades.

He grinned. "Because I asked real nicely and you couldn't resist my feminine charms?"

Chloe rolled her eyes. "And what if this crazy idea doesn't pan out either, hm? How long are we going to keep doing this? Are we gonna start living each other's lives? Are you going to read Trixie a bed time story tonight?" Her voice got a little panicky towards the end.

Lucifer took a hold of her hands again. "It's going to be fine."

"You don't know that. What if we're stuck like this forever?"

"We're not going to be stuck like this forever."

Chloe took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly. "Fine. We're doing this, but if it doesn't work out, we're not going to try any more of your crazy ideas. We'll- I don't know, sit down and think about this. Or see a specialist. Linda is great at her job, but I think this might be a little out of her area of expertise."

"I highly doubt there is a specialist for this", Lucifer said. "C'mon, it's just around the corner."

* * *

The big church was almost deserted. Lucifer spotted the pastor sitting in the front row, talking to somebody. There were also a handful of people in the back rows, probably praying. Or whatever it was that mortals did in churches.

Lucifer stopped immediately after they went inside, looking around. Chloe glared at him. "You have no idea what to do next. Admit it."

"Detective, if you're insinuating that I'm making this plan up as we go then-" He paused, grinning. "-you'd be entirely correct. Don't worry. I'm fantastic at improvisation. Just ask anybody who's had sex with me."

" _Lucifer_. We literally just talked about this. Serious, remember?"

He had the decency to look chagrined for a moment. "Right. Sorry. Slipped my mind." He continued looking around as if searching for something. "I think I'll try placing it on the altar first. He so enjoys people pretending to give him gifts." He hurried along the aisles toward the front of the church. 

Chloe stayed back, still preoccupied by the strange sensation on her back. It didn't feel like scars. Then again, she had no idea what old scars of that size were supposed to feel like. Did they itch? Was this sensation of a weight on her back normal? She experimentally flexed her shoulder blades, feeling as if something moved behind her. She turned her head but, naturally, there was still nothing to be seen.

Meanwhile, Lucifer placed the box on the altar, glaring at it as if he could make it do what he wanted by sheer force of will. Somebody stepped up beside him, regarding the small box wearily.

"Excuse me, may I ask what you're doing?"

It was the pastor, who had stopped talking to the other man in favour of stepping up next to Lucifer.

"I could, but it might test your faith unduly, and Dad always gets a little irritated when I interfere with you mortals worshipping him."

The pastor nodded, unfazed. "I kindly ask you to stop what you're doing and leave this place. I can give you a number of somebody you can call who might be able to help you with-"

There was a scream in the back of the church, interrupting him. Both of them turned around, Lucifer with an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach.

As much as he despised them, he had to admit they were a magnificient sight to behold. He'd rather not have beheld them quite so publicly, though. 

Chloe stood where he had left her, frozen in place, wings extended to their full span behind her. She looked at him with a horrified expression. He approached her slowly, lifting up his hands in a calming gesture.

"Detective, listen to me. It's all fine. Relax. Chloe? Can you hear me?"

The pastor started walking with him, but then he suddenly dropped to his knees beside him, starting a litany of the Lord's prayer. Lucifer paid him no mind. The woman who had screamed earlier was running out of the church, as were some of the other visitors.

Lucifer saw one man stay behind and hold up his phone, pointing the camera at Chloe. He veered off his path to Chloe in favour of confronting him. The man started grinning as he approached him. "What is this? Some kind of publicity stunt for a movie or something? Those wings look amazing."

Lucifer grabbed his phone, dropped it and stomped on it, before the man could so much as blink.

"Hey. What do you think yo-" He drew Chloe's firearm, and the guy finally stopped talking, lifting up his hands.

"Out. Now", Lucifer said, and the man made a run for it. He looked around. As far as he could see, it was only him, Chloe and the pastor left in the church.

He slowly continued on his way to Chloe, hands lifted, as if he were approaching a dangerous animal. He had to be careful. An angel's wings could be a dangerous weapon. And he was currently a frail mortal. If he didn't watch every move, he could end up getting Chloe killed.

"Detective. Please listen to me."

She finally moved her head, looking straight at him. He could see that she was terrified. The wings were moving about restlessly, folding and extending again as if they had a mind of their own.

"Lucifer", her voice betrayed her shock and disbelief. " _What is happening to me_?"

"I have never lied to you. Everything I've told you is the truth."

She shook her head. "No." The wings made a flapping motion, knocking over several benches in their wake. Chloe's hands came up to her head, and he saw that she was about to panic. Dad knew, the kind of havoc she could wreak if this got out of control.

"Chloe. Focus on me. Everything will be alright. Just calm down."

He could see her making an effort to follow his instructions, taking several deep breaths.

"Now, I will come closer to you, and it is very important that you do not move, okay? Can you do that for me?"

Chloe nodded, the look on her face morphing into something close to determination. She put her arms down by her side, staying frozen in place.

He approached her carefully, making sure to stay clear of the wings. Once he reached her, Chloe looked at him with a pleading expression. 

"Help me."

He took a hold of her hands again, and she interlocked their fingers, grateful for the gesture. She took another deep breath and exhaled it slowly.

"You have- ah- you have wings", she told him.

"No shit, Sherlock", he replied, cocking an eyebrow.

She made a noise somewhere between a snort and a sob, lowering her head to his shoulder. 

"You're an angel", she continued, voice soft, full of wonder. He waited for what would inevitably come next. She lifted her head up again suddenly, catching his eye. "You're the devil." She paused, a look of horror on her face. "I'm the devil. I have wings. _Oh God_."

Lucifer heard the sound of approaching sirens. They were running out of time.

"Listen to me, Chloe. We will talk about all of this later, I promise. Right now, I need you to do something for me. I need you to make the wings disappear from this plane of existence."

She huffed out a laugh. "Sure. Do you happen to have an instruction manual to go along with these?"

Lucifer looked towards the door, weighing their options. The sirens were very close now. There was little chance he would be able to teach Chloe how to make the wings disappear in time. Especially since he didn't have the slightest clue how to do it. It was like trying to explain to someone how to lift their arms.

Making a run for it was also out of the question. They would attract way too much attention and not get very far. Instead, he turned around, running to where the pastor was kneeling on the floor, still repeating the words of the prayer. He grabbed the man by the shoulders and forced him to a standing position.

"I need you to hide him. Humanity isn't ready to have proof of the divine." The pastor stared at him dazedly. "It is God's will", Lucifer added, which was true. In this instance, it also happened to be the devil's will, but he didn't think mentioning that would help his cause. 

The pastor nodded, then hesitantly walked towards Chloe, proffering his hand as he reached her. She took it, and he led her away through the ailes, towards a small door near the altar.

Lucifer sighed and got out Chloe's badge. He lifted up his hands in surrender, wondering how he was going to explain the whole event to the cops at the door without flat-out telling a lie.


	8. Chapter 8

Lucifer went straight to the bar in his penthouse, pouring himself a generous amount of liquor, and downing it in one go. He coughed, the burning sensation as it went down his throat somehow different than what he was used to.

He poured another half-full glass, handing it to Chloe. While she hadn't been able to make the wings disappear, she'd at least gained enough control over them to keep them folded on her back, rather than making erratic movements. They'd draped a heavy coat over her, and gotten her out of the church and into a cab without incident, after he'd convinced the officers that there was nothing worth their time going on.

Now Chloe was standing in his penthouse, coat still draped over her shoulders, holding the glass with a trembling hand and taking big gulps from time to time.

Lucifer poured himself another glass and downed it, feeling an unfamiliar buzz. Right. Mortal constitution. He put the bottle back in it's place regretfully. No more alcohol for him today.

He closed his eyes, bracing himself. Then he turned around to face Chloe.

"I imagine you have questions."

She just stared at him, blinking rapidly, and for a second he thought that he'd broken her. As he'd seen with Linda, coming to terms with his true identity was challenging enough for any mortal, not to mention one currently being stuck in his body.

"You are the devil", Chloe said, voice flat.

Lucifer nodded.

"Heaven and hell are real", she added, still barely a trace of emotion in her voice.

He nodded again, eyeing her wearily.

"All of the stuff in the Bible really happened."

He huffed. "Not _all of it_. The authors took a certain amount of liberty."

"Oh God", Chloe said, moving towards the bar, steadying herself on it with one hand. Lucifer offered her a chair and she sat down.

"I know it's a lot to take in."

"You _think_?"

He lifted up the bottle from behind the bar again, refilling the empty glass in her hand. 

She stared at the glass in her hand as if she only now realized it was there. "Is alcohol your solution to everything?"

"It certainly doesn't hurt."

She rubbed her free hand over her face. "I think I would like some distance to digest all of this, but I'm stuck in your body at the moment." She sounded exhausted. Lucifer told himself that this was a completely natural reaction, to be expected, but still her words stung a little.

"I have wings", she added in a voice that clearly conveyed _Oh God, what has my life become?_.

"I'm sorry, detective. I should have been completely honest with you much earlier."

She regarded him thoughtfully for a moment. "You've told me the truth from day one."

"That may be, but I always knew you didn't believe me, and I was afraid to force the matter."

"Hm", she said, "You were afraid of how I'd react."

He cocked his head to the side, scrutinizing her. "You seem to be taking it rather well, all things considered."

Chloe absent-mindedly took another sip from the glass. Somewhere in the back of her mind she registered that she wasn't feeling any effect whatsoever from the alcohol.

"I think there is a limit to how much a person can freak out in a certain time span and I might have been close to it already before-" She gestured towards her back with the hand holding the glass. "-before all of that. I do reserve the right to freak out later over the matter, though."

"Fair enough", Lucifer said, feeling as if a heavy weight had been removed from his chest.

"So, what now?"

He took the small box from his pocket, placing it on the table. "I don't believe my efforts had any effect, but we should try again, just to be sure."

She nodded, locking eyes with him. Lucifer counted down, and they touched the box at the same moment. Nothing happened.

" _Bloody hell_ ", Lucifer cursed.

Chloe took out Lucifer's phone, checking the time. "I need to pick up Trixie." She looked up, meeting his eyes again. "Actually, you need to pick up Trixie."

"Can't we ask Detective Douche?"

"Lucifer-"

"I'm not certain I will be able to fool your offspring. Children are quite perceptive with this sort of thing."

"What? Soul swapping?", she asked sarcastically.

He rolled his eyes. "Knowing when things are off. Tiny mortals are a lot tougher to fool than regular sized ones. Trust me, I know."

"Yeah, I'm not gonna ask. I don't think we have much of a choice. I can't just disappear."

"What if you had an important case that required you to be in another city?"

"You want me to lie to Trixie?"

"No, what I want is not to jeopardize the relationship you have with your offspring by saying or doing something stupid", he blurted out.

"Lucifer", she said, her annoyed tone from a moment ago replaced by something much softer. "You'll do fine."

He ran his hand through his hair. Or tried to, at least. As usual, Chloe's hair was in a ponytail, meaning all he could do was run his hand over it.

"What if you came along for backup?", he asked, not liking the pleading tone in his voice one bit.

"Hm-hmm. Sure. And what about-" She gestured with the glass towards her back again. "-those."

The huge coat was still draped over her back. Lucifer lifted it away carefully, trying not to touch the wings in the process.

"We could try making them disappear again. At least we're not under time pressure now."

Chloe looked over her shoulder wearily. "I'd love to have them gone, but they seem to have a mind of their own."

"Nonsense. You control them. Partially with your subconsciousness, which is why you think they do whatever they want, but it's actually all you."

He paused, regarding the wings on her back. "When they disappear, they sort of vanish into my back. Like this." He made an exaggerated movement first with the right, then with the left shoulder. It looked a bit ridiculous. 

Chloe giggled. Lucifer glared at her. Hearing Lucifer's mouth emit a giggle was even more ridiculous. Before she knew it, she was laughing hysterically. She got a hold of herself eventually, rubbing away tears from the corners of her eyes.

"Feeling better?" Lucifer's voice was somewhere between annoyed and amused. Well, actually it was her voice. She felt the hysterical laughter threatening to start again, but managed to push it down this time. She nodded.

"Okay, try it."

She repeated the movement Lucifer had shown her. She didn't need to turn around to know that the wings were still exactly in the same spot as before, unimpressed by her efforts. She tried it a second time, with the same result.

Lucifer ran his hand over his hair again. "Different approach. Close your eyes."

Chloe did as she was told.

"Now think about how much you'd like the wings to be gone. Make them disappear with your mind."

Chloe raised a skeptical eyebrow at him, keeping her eyes closed.

"Trust me. Think about how you don't need the wings right now. They're in your way. It would be so much more convenient if they were somewhere else."

Chloe sighed, and tried to follow his instructions. _Begone, wings_ , she thought, and had to bite her tongue to keep herself from starting to giggle again.

_Get it together_ , she reprimanded herself, _you just told off Lucifer for not being serious enough._

She finally managed to focus. She pictured the wings vanishing into her back. She tried to play the memory from the church backwards, seeing the wings disappear rather than materialize.

Chloe felt a strange sensation on her back. Well, strange in a different way than the ongoing feeling of _having wings_ , which was plenty strange already.

She opened her eyes and saw Lucifer grinning proudly at her. "Well done, detective. You know how long it took some of my siblings to master their wings? You're a natural."

She couldn't help but smile back at him. _What has my life become?_ , she thought dazedly, _just this morning I was an agnostic, living a mostly normal life, and now I'm practicing how to make angel wings disappear._

"How do I keep them from making another surprise appearance?"

"Try not to think about them too much. And if you do find yourself thinking about them, make sure to keep at the forefront of your mind how inconvenient it would be if they would appear, and how you really have no need of wings at the moment."

"Okay. I think I can do that. Let's go."

Lucifer hesitated. "You are aware you are sending the _devil_ to pick up your only child, yes?"

"Oh. True. I completely forgot about that. Let's send Daniel instead."

Lucifer completely missed the obvious sarcasm in her voice and nodded. "It's probably for the best."

Chloe rolled her eyes. "No. You're going. Stop trying to weasel your way out of it. Don't worry, I'm coming with you. Besides, we have no idea how long we're going to be stuck like this. I won't just vanish from Trixie's life for God knows how long. Plus, technically, I am the devil right now." A look of horror crossed her face. "If we don't manage to fix this, does this mean I'll have to go and rule hell at some point?"

Lucifer put his hands on her arms. "Listen to me, detective. That will never happen. You are not going to hell. Your soul belongs in heaven." He swallowed around a sudden lump in his throat. "You may be stuck in my body right now, but that won't taint your soul."

Chloe nodded, inexplicably feeling the sting of tears in her eyes. 

"Right. Good. Okay. Let's do this."


	9. Chapter 9

Trixie got into the back seat of Chloe's car, smiling brightly at Chloe.

"Hey Lucifer!"

"Hey m- offspring." Chloe bit her tongue. It had been all of two seconds and she was already messing up. Lucifer gave her a look, then started the car.

"Hey monkey, how was your day?", Lucifer asked, and Chloe stared at him. Not only had he remembered her pet name for Trixie, his voice was filled with affection, and he sounded genuinely interested. If she hadn't known any better, she would have sworn it was herself talking.

Trixie cocked her head to the side, a worried expression crossing her features. "Are you feeling okay?"

Lucifer gave Chloe another look. It was quite easy to read. _Told you so._

"Well, if I'm honest, I don't really feel like myself today-", Lucifer replied. Chloe couldn't help herself and snorted. Lucifer gave her an annoyed look, lifting his eyebrows, all but asking her _are you_ trying _to mess this up?_ "-why do you ask, monkey?"

Trixie looked from Chloe to Lucifer, and back again, narrowing her eyes. "You sound strange. Are you two hiding something from me?"

Chloe turned around in the passenger seat to regard her daughter. How had she caught on so quickly? She really had great instincts. She couldn't help but feel proud.

"Yes, we are", she admitted. Lucifer shot her a surprised look, but she ignored it, motioning for him to pay attention to what he was doing. With all these looks he kept shooting her, they were bound to end up in a car crash soon. "We are keeping something from you, but it's grown-up stuff and kind of confusing, and we would really appreciate if you could leave it be, for the moment, okay?"

Trixie regarded her with such an intensely suspicious look that Chloe thought that she'd seen through their charade somehow already. Then Trixie nodded, and said "Okay." After a second, she started smiling. "You two are spending too much time together. You're starting to sound like mom. What happened to your voice?"

Lucifer looked at her again, exasperated. She still had no trouble reading his expression. _Honestly, are you even trying?_ was written all over his face.

"I'm trying out an American accent. What do you think?"

Trixie shook her head forcefully. "I don't like it. Stop it."

Chloe opened her mouth to reply, then closed it with a snap. Maybe coming along had been a bad idea. It seemed that Lucifer was doing perfectly fine, whereas she was busy digging herself in deeper and deeper.

She sighed. "Maybe it's best if you just drop me off at Lux", she suggested. Lucifer gave her a look that was so panicky it was almost comical. How did he think this would play out? Did he think she was staying at her own apartment tonight? That would raise all kinds of questions with Trixie. Questions she didn't have answers to.

Lucifer's earlier words suddenly replayed in her mind. Was she really planning to leave her daughter alone with the devil?The literal, _Biblical_ devil? What if he had been playing her this whole time? He was supposed to be a master at deceit, right? 

She snuck a glance at Lucifer, quickly looking straight ahead again when he tried to meet her eyes. She put one hand on the dashboard, steadying herself. The other made a fist, the knuckles slowly turning white. Her breathing sped up considerably. _Is this the onset of a panic attack?_ , she wondered in a strangely calm part of her mind that was somehow detached from the rest.

The devil is currently stuck in your body. You're possessed by the devil. She felt the hysterical laughter threatening to spill out once more and bit her tongue. _Don't. You're going to freak out Trixie._ She held on to the thought with all her might. _Don't freak out Trixie. Don't freak out Trixie. Don't freak out Trixie._

Her heart was thundering in her chest, and she needed to get out, get out of this car, get out of this body, get out, get out, _get out_. She lifted her arm from the dashboard, biting into the fabric of the suit, to keep herself from screaming the words.

"Detective?", Lucifer asked, accent back to his usual British, worry evident in his voice.

"Lucifer, are you okay?", Trixie asked from the back seat, apparently distracted enough by her behavior for the moment to not have noticed Lucifer's slip in character. She analyzed all of this in the detached part of her brain that was still thinking, with surprising clarity, _You're having a panic attack._

"Stop. The. Car. Please", she ground out, with difficulty. Her hand was already going to the seat belt, the one thing restricting her which she could actually do something about. _Get out, get out, get out._ Lucifer did as he was told. She opened the door when the car wasn't even completely standing still yet, jumped out, took two steps on the pavement, then keeled over and vomited.

"I'm going to check on Lucifer. Please wait in the car, honey", she heard Lucifer say behind her. Apparently he'd managed to get back in character. Good. At least one of them wasn't making a complete mess of things. The one of them who was the literal devil. She moved a bit to the side, leaning her head on the cold pavement. _Don't think about it. Stop thinking about it. Calm down. We will fix this. Things will go back to normal. Don't think about it._

She felt Lucifer's presence by her side. She turned her head on the pavement, and opened her eyes, looking at him. He was kneeling next to her, hand outstretched, not touching her, as if he wanted to comfort her, but didn't know if she wanted him to. She closed her eyes again, swallowing. She took a couple of deep breaths, calming down a bit.

Her instincts were telling her that he hadn't been deceiving her. That he really was the man she had come to know. Self-absorbed, flamboyant, inappropriate. Caring, passionate, protective. The man she knew would never harm an innocent like Trixie. But could she take a chance with her daughter's life? Yet had he wanted to harm her, he could have done so a dozen times over, and he never did. Her thoughts started spinning in a circle.

"Detective? Tell me what to do. Please tell me how to help you. Do you need me to leave?"

In spite of everything, she picked up on the subtle shift in his tone on the last part. Hurt, but resolved. He would walk away if she asked him to, she realized.

She lifted her head up from the ground, and closed the small distance between them, drawing her arms around him, burrowing her head against his neck. It probably looked weird, her snuggling her currently much bigger form against his smaller body. She didn't care.

_Um, excuse me?_ , the detached part of her consciousness piped up, _weren't you busy freaking out about Lucifer being the devil just now? How did we end up here?_ She shut the voice down with force. She didn't have any sensible reply for it anyway. 

After a couple of seconds, he cautiously drew his arms around her in turn, softly patting her on the back. Chloe felt like having a meltdown, well, truthfully, continuing her meltdown, which was already in progress. Instead, she took a couple of deep breaths, then pulled back.

Lucifer gave her a questioning look. She just nodded in reply, not sure herself what exactly she was trying to tell him. She rubbed her hand over her eyes, standing up.

_You can do this. Get it together._ Both of them got back into the car. There was a moment of awkward silence. Trixie looked back and forth between the two of them.

"Sorry about that. Partied too much last night. You know me", Chloe said merrily, plastering on a smile she knew wasn't fooling anybody. Trixie continued to give her a worried, suspicious look. Boy, she had really messed this up big time, hadn't she?

"Let's stop for ice cream on the way, what do you think, monkey?", Lucifer said, the same forced joviality in his voice.

"Sure. Okay", Trixie said, almost no excitement in her voice. Instead she sounded even more suspicious now, regarding them with a look that Chloe had seen many times before, and had no trouble interpreting. _I'll get to the bottom of this_ was what the look on Trixie's face said. Chloe sighed. She really was her mother's daughter.


	10. Chapter 10

Chloe leaned against the doorway to Trixie's bedroom, watching as Lucifer read Trixie what must already be the fifth story in a row. If he didn't manage to say no at some point, he was going to be doing this all night. To be fair, he was doing a great job. Lucifer was a gifted storyteller, giving every character a unique voice. Thankfully, Trixie seemed to be too focussed on the stories themselves to wonder why her mother was suddenly so much better at doing voices.

Lucifer kept glancing in her direction from time to time, as if he needed to reassure himself that he was doing okay, and that Chloe was still there. He seemed to be taking the job of bringing Trixie to bed very seriously. _The devil is reading my daughter a bedtime story_ , she thought, and waited for the panic to rise up again, but this time it remained strangely absent.

She turned around, convinced that Lucifer could handle this on his own, and sat down in the living room, feeling exhausted. She closed her eyes for a moment. All of a sudden, she was back in the church, wings bursting from her back. She gasped, opening her eyes again. It didn't look like she would be getting any sleep anytime soon.

She looked at her hand, slowly making a fist and then stretching out her fingers several times in a row. Except it wasn't her hand. It was bigger, the fingers longer. It was more masculine. It was impeccably manicured, to be sure, perhaps even more so than her own hands, but it was still a man's. She placed the hand flat on her chest, feeling the muscles through the fabric of the dress shirt. It didn't feel anything like her chest. She was suddenly overwhelmed by the feeling of being a stranger in her own body. 

The panic was back again. _Don't think about it. It's going to be fine._ She took a couple of deep breaths, leaning back on the couch. She felt the rise of her chest under her hand with every breath. She moved her hand downwards slowly, over her abs, all of a sudden assaulted by the memory of a dream she had quite some time ago, where she had run her hands over Lucifer's body much like this.

Chloe was pretty sure that, at the time, she hadn't been able to feel her touch from the other side, feel the muscles in her abdomen tense, then relax again. Her breathing sped up. She opened her eyes again, drawing her hand back quickly, sitting up straight. This was wrong on so many levels. She was not going down that road.

Lucifer came out of Trixie's bedroom, closing his eyes for a moment and sighing, as if he had been busy defusing a bomb rather than reading a story to her daughter. Chloe was immensely grateful that she had managed to stop her train of thought this time before any visible reaction took place. Well, apart from the blush that she felt heating up her cheeks.

She cleared her throat, hoping he wouldn't notice. "You were great with Trixie today", she said sincerely.

Lucifer stared at her, blinking rapidly, as if this were the last thing he had ever expected to hear from her.

"I'm sorry I had a meltdown earlier", Chloe added.

"I assure you, detective, you have nothing to apologize for. I believe it is rather remarkable how well you've been dealing with this whole situation."

Chloe nodded, lost in thought. "Do you think I can-" She stopped mid-sentence, hit by a sudden suspicion. She got up quickly, snuck over to Trixie's bedroom and swiftly opened the door. Trixie almost fell out, having been leaning with her ear against the door, eavesdropping.

Trixie gave her an unapologetic shrug. Chloe pointed to her bed, raising her eyebrows. 

"When did you become a detective? That's so cool", Trixie said, clearly trying to divert attention away from the fact that she had been listening in on their conversation.

Chloe furrowed her brow, wondering what she was talking about. Ah. "No, that's just something your mother keeps teasing me with. I'm still just a consultant. Now, off to bed you go."

Trixie narrowed her eyes, looking like she was putting the pieces of a puzzle together. Chloe was certain that if what had happened to her today hadn't been so very unbelievable Trixie would have figured it out by now.

"Still don't like your new voice. It's boring", Trixie complained, then trotted back to her bed.

Chloe took a deep breath, then closed the door and turned around. Lucifer had sat down on the couch in the meantime. Much like herself, he looked exhausted. Well, it had been a long day for him, too.

She dropped down on the couch next to him, leaning back. She rubbed her hand over her eyes, trying to come up with some idea of what to do next. _I guess I have to follow Lucifer's lead on this one. He's the expert_ , she thought, looking over at him. The expert on soul exchanges. Celestial matters. Because he's an _archangel_. She briefly closed her eyes once more. _For the love of God, stop thinking about it!_ , she told herself again. _Oh God. He knows God. Personally. He has talked to God. God. I'm sitting next to a son of God._

"Chloe?", Lucifer whispered, for fear of Trixie listening in on them, or maybe in an effort to calm her, she wasn't sure.

She took a couple of deep breaths. She really had to stop freaking out every time she thought abbout this. So, he's an angel, no big deal, right?

"I'm okay", she answered quietly. He didn't look very convinced.

"What were you about to ask me just now?"

"Hmm? Ah, yes. I was wondering if I'm able to do your _what's your deepest desire_ trick now or if you are still able to do it, even though you're me."

Lucifer frowned. "You make it sound like a parlor trick. I don't know. I guess there is no point in you trying it out on me, as that wouldn't tell us anything."

Chloe nodded thoughtfully. "Why _am_ I immune to your charms, anyway?"

Lucifer looked uncomfortable. Well, slightly more uncomfortable than before. It seemed being in a different body was taking its toll on him as well. He shifted around on the couch restlessly.

"We need to talk. About a lot of things. But it's probably better if we wait until we've fixed this. You already had more than enough to deal with for one day, don't you agree?"

Chloe made a sound somewhere between a laugh and a snort. If that wasn't the understatement of the year.

"What's your plan?", she asked.

Lucifer looked at her with a blank expression, and she realized, to her horror, that he didn't have any clue what to do next.

"How about we ask Amenadiel or Maze for help? They are celestial beings too, right? They know about this stuff, don't they?"

Lucifer started laughing, then caught himself. "Yeah, don't ever call Maze a celestial being to her face, that won't end well."

"Fine, Amenadiel, then. Would he know something about this box?"

Lucifer looked affronted. "We don't need _his_ help. We can sort this out ourselves, without him ever needing to know that it happened at all."

"Lucifer."

"I've been doing just _fine_ on my own for millennia, I really don't see why we need to bring h-"

" _Lucifer_."

He looked at her with an almost pleading expression. "But he's going to be all _smug_ and condescending about it."

"Yeah? You know what? I don't care. If he can help us get out of this mess, it's worth it. Your ego can deal with a little bruising."

"But- but- you don't understand. I'll never hear the end of this. Tectonic plates will have shifted and he will still be smugly reminding me of how I needed his help because I accidentally swapped souls with a mortal."

"Oh, stop being so dramatic. Besides, tectonic plates shift all the time. Call him or I will do it. I already have your phone. I just need to figure out your lock pattern and I can call him myself." She took his phone out of her pocket. "Hmm, what could it be? Some obscene gesture perhaps?"

"Give me that", Lucifer grumbled, grabbing for the phone. Chloe let him have it. "I'll text him. Happy now?"

"Thank you", Chloe said sincerely. 

"For the record, this is my lock pattern." He unlocked the phone in front of her. The pattern spelled out a capital D. Chloe snorted.

"D? What, for _devil_? Isn't that a little corny? And not very secure?"

"Pssh. I have nothing to hide. There's a bunch of dick pics on here that I keep trying to leak, but for some reason the papers refuse to print them."

"Outrageous."

"Indeed." He glared at her. "You were being sarcastic again, weren't you?"

Chloe grinned at him. Then her smile faltered. "That's what the D stands for, isn't it?"

Lucifer rolled his eyes. "It doesn't refer to me or my penis. Let it go. Now, I would offer to sleep on the couch and let you have your bedroom, but that might look strange to the offspring in the morning, so I'm afraid you'll have to make do with the couch."

"Wouldn't it make more sense for me to stay at Lux? Trixie might get confused if you stay the night. I mean, I. You know what I mean."

He gave her a horrified expression. "What if the child needs something in the middle of the night?"

"You seemed to be doing perfectly fine earlier."

He shook his head, giving her a panicky look, and Chloe took pity on him. "Fine. I'll sleep on the couch. I'll set an alarm and try to get up before her."

Lucifer looked immensely relieved. "Are you sure you're fine with me sleeping in your bed?", he inquired.

"Seriously?" Her voice had risen considerably, so she tuned it back down to a whisper. "You're in my body. I don't think sleeping in my bed can invade my privacy any further at this point."

"Detective, I-", he sounded like he wanted to apologize, and Chloe interrupted him, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that. This is not your fault. You've been a perfect gentlemen."

He smiled brightly at her compliment, clearly pleased. Chloe shook her head. "I really should know better at this point than to further inflate your ego."

"My ego is not _inflated_. It is perfectly in line with my skills, which are vastly superior to the average mortal's."

Chloe chuckled. "Okay, then. Goodnight."

"Goodnight, detective." Chloe didn't move, and Lucifer wondered what she was waiting for, until he remembered that he was the one sleeping in her bedroom. He stood up quickly. "Right. Any drawers I should stay out of?"

Chloe rolled her eyes at him, and sighed. "Please stay out of all the drawers. The pyjamas are on the bed."

"Okay. Yes. Goodnight." With that, he vanished into Chloe's bedroom. Chloe tried to recall the location of Dan's old sweat pants and sweater that were lying around somewhere. It was going to be uncomfortable enough sleeping in a different body, she was for sure not going to attempt it in a suit.

And now her mind was getting ahead of her again, presenting her with a vivid picture of undressing Lucifer, and _dammit_ when had she become a horny teenager? Maybe she just wasn't used to Lucifer's hormones? Did angels even have those? She closed her eyes, trying to clear her mind. It would be a long restless night if she kept this up. 

She realized that they never came back to Ella to talk about the case. They were letting the murder victim down. Time was crucial in an investigation like this. Maybe she should have handed this case over to one of her colleagues due to personal reasons. But then Lucifer would have had to explain those reasons to the lieutenant, and she had some doubts how that would have turned out, given his whole deal with always teling the truth.

She decided she would get on the case first thing in the morning, even if she was still stuck in Lucifer's body. After all, it wasn't like there was anything she could do about it. Better to leave that in the hands of Amenadiel and Lucifer, and work on something where she could actually make a difference. Take her mind off of this whole madness until they found a way to reverse it.

And, who knew, maybe she would go to sleep, and wake up in her own bed, and her own body, tomorrow morning, and it would turn out that all of this had been nothing more than a crazy dream after all. She could always hope, right?


	11. Chapter 11

Chloe woke up the next morning, groggy and with a terrible pain in her neck, feeling like she had just fallen asleep a minute ago, to find Trixie standing at the end of the couch, grinning at her.

"Good morning, Lucifer", she yelled, then ran off. Chloe blinked a couple of times, trying to get her bearings. _Lucifer?_ The events of the previous day came rushing back to her and she groaned, rubbing her neck. She was still stuck in Lucifer's body. Looking ridiculous in a pair of sweat pants that were way too short, no less. Lucifer was going to have a heart attack when he saw her like this.

Right. First things first. Coffee. She closed her eyes again, letting herself fall back on the couch. Coffee. In a minute.

Chloe woke up once more to the sound of the door bell. She experienced another moment of blissful disorientation before reality hit her again like a sledgehammer to the chest. She got up slowly, walked clumsily over to the door and opened it.

On the other side was Dan. _Shit_. She'd completely forgotten that he was taking Trixie to school today. Dan's eyebrows shot up at the sight of her. His gaze travelled down and he frowned.

"Are those my pants?"

"If you wanted them, maybe you shouldn't have left them here", she snapped at him, completely fed up already, and the day had barely begun. 

"Okay", Dan said, drawing out the second syllable, lifting his hands up in a defensive gesture. "Somebody's not a morning person. Is Trixie ready?"

Like a tiny whirlwind, her daughter flew past her to give Dan a hug. He knelt down to embrace her. "You got everything?"

Trixie nodded, then turned back to Chloe. "Your alarm started, but I turned it off, 'cause you looked so tired and I thought you could really use the sleep, but now I thought what if you had an important meeting and now you missed it. Are you mad?" She looked at Chloe with big puppy dog eyes.

Chloe sighed. "No, I'm not mad, mo- Trixie."

Trixie gave her a big smile, and ran off to Dan's car. Dan watched her enter the car, then turned around to face her again.

"Listen, I'm not sure what Chloe sees in you, but if you hurt her, I'll make your life _hell_ , got me?"

Chloe rolled her eyes. Dan meant well, but this wasn't the 50's. She could take care of herself just fine. Feeling tired, annoyed, and grumpy, she had no trouble channeling her inner Lucifer.

"Great pun. Never heard that one before. Now, what the detective and I are doing or not doing is none of your business. Goodbye." She closed the door in his face.

* * *

"Detective", Lucifer whined, a strange tone in his voice that was somewhere between warning and pleading.

"Lucifer. For the last time. You're not going in to work as me today without having a shower first."

Lucifer took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly. "Just so we're absolutely clear on the matter. You are asking _me_ to get in the shower with your naked body. That's what's happening here."

Chloe distinctly recalled having that particular fantasy once. Although she was quite certain her mind and Lucifer's body had been involved as well. Yes, Lucifer's body had definitely been involved.

"Well, what do you suggest? You can't go to the precinct looking like that."

"I could just wash your hair? My hair, I mean."

Chloe shook her head. "We have no idea how long we're going to be stuck like this. We can't just stop showering. That's disgusting."

Lucifer shrugged. "There are no showers in hell. Well, there is this one hell-loop-"

"Don't", Chloe said, holding up her hands. She really didn't want to hear any of his devil talk right now.

"Sorry", Lucifer said. "Look, _Chloe_ , I spent the whole night with my hands above the covers, with quite some effort, I might add, _not_ thinking about this-" He made a circling gesture with his hand, indicating his whole body. "-because the last thing I want is to be disrespectful to you, but asking me to do this- I- you can't possibly expect me not to have inappropriate thoughts while having _a shower in your body_."

Chloe thought back to the numerous occasions she had less than appropriate thoughts the day before. "I agree that's an unrealistic expectation."

Lucifer ran his hand through his hair, which, she noticed, he was wearing down instead of in a ponytail. "What if we showered together? That way, you would see what I'm doing and you could stop me when you feel something untoward is happening. Or better yet, I could just close my eyes and you could do the soaping up part-" He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. "I'm afraid I've already started with the inappropriate thoughts."

Chloe chuckled, and he opened his eyes again in surprise. "Yeah, I believe I'm way ahead of you there."

She grinned at him, and he couldn't help but smile back at her. She quickly turned serious again though. "Showering together will make this whole thing even more weird, in my opinion. It's plenty weird already. I can't believe I'm saying this, especially after everything I found out yesterday, but I trust you not to do anything inappropriate. You don't need my supervision."

Lucifer looked at her with a shocked expression, clearly not having expected this. "I'm flattered that you think so highly of me, detective, but I'm afraid I don't share your trust in me. This is quite a temptation, and I can't say I have a lot of expirience trying to resist those. At what point does it turn from innocently washing body parts to something else entirely. That's a very thin line to walk. I don't want to stand there and suddenly realize I'm doing something for which you should be present and have given your consent."

Chloe rubbed her hand over her eyes. "How can everyday things like peeing and taking a shower become so damn complicated?" She sighed. "What if I just watched? That way you would know that I'm fine with what's happening and you wouldn't need to have a guilty consciensce about anything."

Lucifer shifted from foot to foot, clearly torn. Then he nodded reluctantly. "Wouldn't it be easier if I just called in sick?"

Chloe raised her index finger. "We are not going to be bested by a _goddamn_ shower."

A look of disgust crossed Lucifer's face. "Please don't bring my father into this."

"Sorry."

"Also, if I'm having a shower, so are you. I mean, look what you have done to me in just one day." He shook his head, looking her up and down with a comically exaggerated horrified expression. "I should use your badge and arrest you for what you're wearing alone."

"Yeah, well, it's not like I have a closet full of men's clothes to choose from."

He remained uncharacteristically silent after that, lost in thought, and Chloe couldn't help but start thinking herself about what having a shower in Lucifer's body was going to be like. Big mistake. She could certainly see what he'd been so worried about. That was a minefield. She shook her head, trying to shake the image of a naked, wet Lucifer.

"You first", both of them suddenly said at the same time. Chloe rolled her eyes. "Go", she told him, making a shooing gesture with her hands. He reluctantly took off in the direction of the bathroom. At the door, he turned around, raising his eyebrows, asking, without uttering a word, _are you coming or what?_.

She took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly, following him into the bathroom. Lucifer had already started undressing. He kept his eyes firmly fixed on the wall while he was doing it, undressing himself with quick movements, making an effort to touch as little skin as possible.

She suddenly had to think back to the early days of their partnership, when he'd been all innuendo and salacious remarks. And now here they were, him with _plenty_ of opportunities to touch any part of her he wanted to, and instead making an incredible effort not to do it. Back then, she probably wouldn't have thought him capable of so much restraint. Well, they would know the extent of his self control soon enough, wouldn't they? She just hoped fervently she would be able to show the same level of restraint when it was her turn.

Lucifer braced himself, closing his eyes for a moment, then he stepped into the shower, turning the water on. He started running his hands through her hair, but stayed clear of all other parts of her body.

"Why did you turn it so hot?", Chloe inquired, trying to distract herself from the strangeness of watching herself take a shower.

"I like to shower hot", Lucifer replied as if that should have been obvious.

"That's bad for your skin. And since you're currently in my skin, I'd kindly ask you to turn it down a little from scorching hot to something more reasonable."

Lucifer looked down, then quickly went back to staring at the wall again. "Maybe a cold shower would indeed be more appropriate."

His voice sounded a little strained. He took the shampoo and kept himself busy with shampooing and rinsing out her hair. When he was done, he turned to her with a pleading expression. "You know, I remember hearing somewhere that too much soap is also bad for your skin, maybe we should leave it at this, yeah?"

"Just get it over with."

He leaned his head against the shower wall, closing his eyes. After a moment, he opened them again, turning his head to face her. 

"I think- no, I'm pretty sure I'm getting aroused", he admitted, a strange tone to his voice, as if he thought he'd failed her somehow.

She waved her hand dismissively. "Yeah, that was pretty much unavoidable. It's fine."

"It's fine?", he repeated, sounding confused. "You're not angry?"

"Angry? No. I might have been a bit confused if you hadn't been, at this point, to be honest. Stop worrying so much."

"Huh", he said thoughtfully. After a moment, he added, "It feels very different. The sensation is more-" He waved his hand around in front of him "-spread out rather than centered in one point only. It's quite overwhelming, actually. It's been a while since I had a novel experience like this."

Chloe's cheeks reddened. She felt akward. She wasn't entirely sure what Lucifer was feeling. He went from seemingly very uncomfortable to nonchalantly discussing the details of his state of arousal. He was giving her whiplash. "You know, when I said 'it's fine' I didn't mean 'let's analyze it in great detail'. Can we just get this over with and move on?"

He gave her one of his trademark flirtatious looks. "Eager to get to your own shower?"

Chloe's blush deepened. She might have, possibly, been thinking about it. Maybe. "You asked me to be here. One more comment like that and I'm out the door."

He became serious again in an instant. "Sorry. I'm just nervous."

He picked up her shower gel, pouring a generous amount into his hand. He started innocently, with her arms, legs, and feet. Then he stopped, closed his eyes, and took yet another deep breath, trying to clear his thoughts. 

He took more shower gel, but hesitated before applying it to her breasts, with his hand hovering in the air, giving her a look with raised eyebrows, then shaking his head. "This doesn't feel right. Can't you do it?" Chloe sighed. She got his point. He didn't want to do it, because it had an undeniable sexual connotation, and their relationship wasn't on that level. He didn't want to do anything like that to her body without her mind being involved as well. Which made perfect sense to her. Yet she really didn't want to get into the shower with him. Who knew where that would end.

She shook her head. "Just- just leave it. Maybe we'll get this sorted today and then I'll have a proper shower tomorrow."

He looked at her with such an incredibly relieved expression that she actually felt hurt for a split second. Surely touching her breasts hadn't been such a horrible prospect. She shook her head, trying to rid herself of that irrational line of thought. She should be glad he was taking this topic so seriously and was so concerned with not doing anything that might be considered inappropriate.

Speaking of inappropriate, she eyed the shower warily, thinking ahead to what she was going to do a couple of minutes from now. Lucifer rushed past her, grabbing a towel, drying himself off superficially, as if he were still afraid of touching her body too much. At the door, he turned around suddenly, asking, "Do you want to pick something for me to wear or should I go with my instincts?"

She thought back to some of the outfits he'd worn since they'd met and couldn't really say she found fault with the way he dressed.

"I trust your fashion sense. Just don't overdo it, it's only a regular day at the office."

He nodded, and left. Chloe continued staring at the shower, feeling anxious. How hard could it be to take a shower? _Quite_ hard, _detective, especially if you're doing it in my body_ , she heard Lucifer's voice in her head. She could almost see the accompanying eyebrow raise as well. Fantastic, now she was making his bad puns for him as well. Where would this end?


	12. Chapter 12

Chloe was still standing in front of the shower, lost in thought, when Lucifer appeared next to her, fully dressed.

He'd picked out a nice outfit, but hadn't overdone it. He was wearing her hair down, and she had to admit it looked really good on him.

"Are you wearing makeup?", she asked incredulously.

Lucifer waved his hand dismissively. "Please. As if I didn't know how to apply makeup. Now, why aren't you in the shower yet?"

Chloe chewed her bottom lip. Why, indeed. "I think I would prefer for you to be here as well", she said. If somebody had told her two days ago that she would be asking _Lucifer_ to watch her take a shower, she would have laughed at them.

"I assure you, detective, that isn't necessary. I'm completely on board with _whatever_ you want to do." His voice took on a salacious note that implied exactly what was entailed in _whatever_. Chloe felt her cheeks heat up again.

"I am _so_ taking a cold shower."

"But, _detective_ ", Lucifer all but whined, "where is the fun in that? Live a little!"

She gave him a look. "I'd still prefer if you stayed", she said, and Lucifer nodded his agreement. 

Chloe decided that she'd beat around the bush long enough. It was time to get this over with. She started undressing, trying her best to think as little as possible about what she was doing and what was going to happen next.

She managed to get naked without incident, and stepped into the shower. She had a sudden surge to look at Lucifer, but managed to fight it down, and keep her eyes fixed on the wall instead.

She leaned her head against the cold tiles, taking a couple of deep breaths. _You're in the shower. In Lucifer's body. Lucifer's naked body. Lucifer's naked body which is about to be dripping wet._ She pulled back a little to softly bang her head against the tiles. _Stop thinking about it. Stop thinking about it._

Maybe she should have told Lucifer to get the hell out, saving herself the embarrassment of getting visibly aroused in his presence once more. Then again, she'd completely got his point. She didn't want to do anything to his body without his mind being present either.

Chloe turned the water on, set it to a lukewarm temperature, and realized immediately that agreeing to take a shower had been a mistake. The spray hit her everywhere, heightening her awareness of Lucifer's body tenfold. She groaned. _Not again_ , she begged, but it was already happening.

She kept her eyes firmly closed, hoping it would just go away if she ignored it. _Think unsexy thoughts. Think unsexy thoughts._ It was quite the challenge, given the feeling of water droplets everywhere on Lucifer's naked body. 

"You know, if you keep ignoring that, it's just going to get worse", Lucifer advised.

Chloe opened her eyes to glare at him. "For the last time, I'm not going to- going to-"

"Jerk off?", Lucifer supplied, grinning.

"Having fun?", Chloe asked accusatorially. He hadn't really done anyhing wrong, but she was frustrated, and angry at herself, and he was the only one around to take it out on.

"Can't complain", he said merrily. His voice turned serious again on his next words. "If you don't do this, you'll wonder for the rest of your life what it would have been like. How the other half experiences it. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Are you really going to let it pass?"

He waited for a reply, when she didn't offer anything, he continued. "I assure you, I am completely fine with it. More than fine, actually. I would really enjoy seeing you do it. If you don't want to do it yourself, I could do it for you."

Chloe continued glaring at him, fighting down the arousal that was getting more intense by the minute. Lucifer was right, it felt very different. He could be incredibly convincing if he wanted to. She was starting to wonder why she was fighting this so much. She shook her head. No, no, no, this wasn't happening. She wasn't doing this.

"I always knew you were in love with yourself", she joked, trying to change the topic.

"You're right", he agreed, not a trace of shame in his voice. "And why wouldn't I be? Would you like me to soap you up?"

She most certainly hadn't needed that mental picture. She groaned again, cursing her own stupidity for asking Lucifer to stay.

Chloe sighed, weighing her options. She could get out of the shower immediately, and leave with at least a smudge of her dignity still intact. She could soap herself up as quickly as possible and then get out, hoping not to embarrass herself any further in the process. She could let Lucifer soap her up- her train of thought crashed and burned.

"Think of it like this. It's basically me jerking myself off in the shower. You're just watching. Granted, you get a bit more of a front seat than you would normally have had, but that's it. It's just me, doing what I would have done anyway. Nothing for you to feel guilty about."

So much for _I never tempted any of you to do anything_. Wasn't it something like that he'd said during one of their cases? Well, she certainly felt tempted.

As if he'd read her thoughts, he added, "And you get to say _the devil made me do it_ , and, for once, it would be kind of true."

"I don't know, Lucifer", she said, voice wavering.

"You're considering it!", he said, sounding absolutely delighted.

She sighed, turning fully towards him, regarding him. He was smiling at her as if he were a kid left unattended in a candy store.

"Pretty please?", he said, cocking his head to the side, grinning at her. The move usually worked for him, but she still wasn't sure it suited her.

"Don't you think this will affect- our partnership?" She'd been about to say _us_ , but was there a _them_ outside of their working relationship? There had always been an undeniable attraction between them, but things were always complicated. Swapping bodies hadn't made it any easier.

He shook his head, serious again. "No more than being in each other's bodies has already affected it, I should think."

Chloe rubbed her hand over her eyes. She was a naturally curious person. It was one of the things that made her a good detective. She was aroused, yes, but she also wanted to _know_ what it would be like. Would it feel very different? Or similar? She would never, ever get another chance to find out, and it was gnawing at her.

"Okay", she said.

"Okay?", Lucifer repeated, sounding as if he couldn't quite believe what was happening. She couldn't quite believe it herself.

She turned the water off. "Soap me up. Also, you know, um, _that_ part. If you want."

"You mean your penis?", he inquired innocently, knowing full well what she meant. Her cheeks heated up again, and she suddenly felt exposed and uncomfortable.

"Never mind, this was a stupid idea", she said quietly, starting to leave the shower. 

"No, I'm sorry. I'll behave, I promise." He grabbed the shower gel and looked at her with puppy dog eyes. Or tried to, at least. She still wasn't convinced about the effectiveness of the expression on her own face.

"Well, if you're going to do it, get on with it", she said, more nervous than she'd been in years. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and exhaled it slowly. Was she really doing this?

"Are you sure you want me to do this?", Lucifer asked, all of a sudden sounding uncertain. It was good to know that she wasn't the only one who was feeling nervous.

"I'm sure if you're sure", she said, not feeling one bit sure. There was a part of her that wanted to do it, _badly_ , but there was also a part of her that was worried how this was going to affect their relationship. There was also a tiny part of her mind that was worried that this was going to be mind-blowingly fantastic and then she would likely never get to experience it again.

Her thoughts stopped short when she felt Lucifer's hands on her chest. It was an innocent touch, but it left a trail of fire on her skin. Her skin, her muscles, everything felt different, and so did his touch. Chloe was getting more and more aroused, the feeling threatening to drown out everything else. She reached for the wall next to her and the glass on the other side for support.

Lucifer made circling motions over her chest and down over her abs, spreading out the shower gel. Chloe drew in a sharp breath.

"I've got to say I look spectacular when wet. I should have sex in the shower more often."

Chloe snorted. Of course, Lucifer would be appreciating his own body.

He quickly soaped up her arms and legs. It shouldn't have been erotic, but it, too, made her more aware of Lucifer's body, which in turn heightened her arousal.

He reached around her to continue on her upper back and Chloe couldn't help but groan in frustration. 

"Impatient?", he asked, and she could hear the grin in his voice. Chloe growled, then opened her eyes in shock. She had no idea where that had come from.

Lucifer was indeed grinning at her. He lowered his hands further down, grabbing her backside. Chloe's hips jerked forward involuntarily at the contact. He started massaging, and Chloe's eyes fell shut again.

"I've also got quite the firm buttocks, I must say", Lucifer said smugly.

Chloe chuckled. "You're unbelievable", she said, feeling more relaxed.

"Unbelievably attractive, you mean", he said, squeezing, and Chloe moaned.

"More like an unbelievable tease", she said.

"What? But we've barely started! Has nobody ever introduced you to the _art_ of foreplay?", he asked, faking shock.

"I'm dripping wet, I'm getting cold, just get on with it", she grumbled.

"Unbelievable. The experience of a life time and she tells me to _get on with it_ ", Lucifer mumbled.

He let go of her, and Chloe tensed in anticipation. Nothing happened. He really was a tease. She had time to think that this had been a monumentally bad idea before Lucifer _finally_ touched her and all coherent thought left her for good.

"Fuck", she said, which was a novelty. She _never_ cursed during sex. Somewhere at the edge of her consciousness she heard Lucifer chuckle. All of her sensory input seemed dulled, everything was laser-focussed on one point. The feeling of arousal, of building pressure, was incredible, and so, so different from how it usually felt.

Lucifer picked up the pace, doing some circling motion with his thumb at the top, and Chloe gasped. She already knew that she wasn't going to last.

"Just for the record, _I_ have more stamina than this", Lucifer remarked, sounding amused.

Chloe couldn't spare the brain power to formulate a reply. "Unnghh", she said.

Her hips started jerking forward of their own account, and she was suddenly close to the edge. Lucifer must have picked up on it, because he _thankfully_ increased the speed even more.

"I'm- I'm going to-" She didn't get any further because several things happened at once. For one, she came her brains out. At the moment of her release, the wings extended from her back.

Lucifer must have anticipated it somehow, because he was already diving for cover next to the bathtub when her left wing hit the glass wall of the shower, shuttering it into a million pieces. The right wing hit the wall next to her with a sickening thud, sending tiles flying everywhere.

Her knees collapsed from under her, and she landed hard in a pile of broken glass and debris. She was certain that was going to hurt later, but right now her brain was too preoccupied with processing the experience that had preceeded the wing extension. 

" _Fuck_ ", she said again, shaking her head, watching dazedly as little pieces of debris and glass fell down from her hair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What? You never had to renovate your bathroom after sex? Clearly you're doing it wrong.


	13. Chapter 13

"Ow", Chloe said, her wing twitching.

She was lying flat on her stomach on the couch, wings spread out to either side of her. Lucifer was busy delicately brushing pieces of glass and leftovers from her bathroom tiles out of her left wing.

The feeling of his fingers running through the feathers was actually quite nice, if it weren't for the pieces of glass that had gotten imbedded in the wings.

"Ow", she said again, as Lucifer removed one of the bigger pieces.

"Sorry", he said, sounding guilty.

Chloe opened her eyes, looking at him. "Did you know this was going to happen? Couldn't you have given me a warning? Or suggested to move to another location?"

Lucifer didn't meet her eyes, keeping himself busy with taking care of the wings. "It doesn't happen to _me_. Usually. I failed to take your inexperience with the wings into account. This is all my fault. I'm sorry."

She waved her hand. "Don't beat yourself up over it. If I had more self-restraint this wouldn't have happened either. I'm just worried what I'm going to tell Trixie about the state of our bathroom. I don't want to lie to her."

"I know somebody who can fix it for you. He owes me a favour. I can have him come by within the hour. Trixie will never realize it was broken in the first place."

Chloe furrowed her brow. "I highly doubt somebody will be able to order and install perfectly matching tiles by the time Trixie comes home, even if he owes a favor to the devil."

"You're right. Your bathroom could do with a makeover anyway. How about we get somebody in to do a complete renovation? I'll pay for it, of course, seeing as this whole thing was my fault."

"I don't know, Lucifer."

"C'mon. Let me do this small thing, at least."

"And what do I tell Trixie? I woke up this morning and decided to have the bathroom renovated? She's suspicious enough as it is."

"We'll tell her the truth, naturally. You, as in _Lucifer_ , broke it, and insisted to pay for it."

"Yeah, that won't make her suspicious _at all_. I'm really not comfortable with telling her all these half-truths." She sighed. "But I also don't see any better option at the moment. I don't think I could explain what's really going on in any believable way. It would be way too scary for her."

"You underestimate your daughter", Lucifer said thoughtfully, continuing to clean her wings. He reached another painful spot, and Chloe instinctively retracted the wing.

"Easy", Lucifer said, jumping backwards quickly.

Chloe lifted her head from the couch, trying to meet his eyes again. "How come this hurts so much? Didn't you tell me once that a gunshot is nothing more than a flick of the finger to you? Are your wings especially delicate or what?"

Lucifer sighed. "They're the toughest part, actually."

"You could have fooled me", she said sarcastically. "OW", she added as he picked out another piece of glass.

"I'm having a bit of a mortality situation at the moment. Nothing to worry about. Just try not to get hurt or killed. Since you're usually a full time mortal that should come naturally to you."

She dropped her head back down, closing her eyes. "How does an archangel get into a mortality situation?"

"It's- complicated", he said evasively. Chloe decided not to push him, and changed the topic.

"We still have a case to solve, you know."

Lucifer grimaced. "Can't we hand this one off to one of your colleagues? After all, we are a bit preoccupied at the moment."

"Hmm-mm. And you'll tell them what, exactly?"

"How about, I can't take this case because I swapped bodies with my partner and then came my wings out in the shower?", Lucifer deadpanned.

Chloe groaned. "Yeah, that'll get me off the case for sure. Also any other case I might want to work in the future." She rubbed her hand over her eyes. "How about you just say 'personal reasons'?"

"You know I don't lie."

"That's not a lie. Swapping personalities sounds like a _personal_ reason to me."

"Fine. We don't have time to split our focus anyway. We need to put all our energy into finding a solution for _this_." He gestured in between the two of them.

"And the victim deserves better than two entirely distracted investigators on their case."

He waved his hand dismissively. "Yeah, yeah, sure, that too."

"Did you reach Amenadiel?", Chloe asked, already having an inkling what the answer was going to be.

"I didn't text him yet", Lucifer admitted.

" _Lucifer_ ", Chloe said, exasperated.

"I'll do it. Eventually. I'm a devil of my word. I just thought, maybe, somehow we could find another way-"

"You know what? I'll text him. Seeing as you're not _man enough_ to ask for help when you need it."

Lucifer sat down on the arm rest of the sofa, pouting. There really was no other word for it. "If you must", he grumbled.

Her phone on the table vibrated. Lucifer went to retrieve it, had a look, and hummed.

"What is it now?", Chloe asked.

Lucifer sounded apologetic when he replied. "It's Ms. Lopez. She wanted to take a closer look at the artifact and found that you had checked it out of evidence and never returned it. She asks what's going on, and if you can bring it to the lab for further testing."

Chloe closed her eyes, beyond exasperated now. "Explain to me how, exactly, you didn't see this coming? You checked it out of evidence as me, using my badge, faking my signature, and thought nobody would notice if you just _never brought it back_?" Her voice raised considerably towards the end. Lucifer flinched.

"I- forgot about it", Lucifer admitted.

"You _forgot_ about it?" Chloe stood up, advancing on him, the wings spreading out on either side of her as far as the living room would allow. "What if we'd lost the box at that church? I could have gotten into a lot of trouble!"

Lucifer stood frozen in place, staring at her eyes, swallowing. 

Chloe glared at him for a moment longer, furious. Then she blinked, and took a step backwards. "Sorry. I should never have allowed you to take it out of the precinct. It's my fault as much as yours."

Lucifer didn't reply. He slowly raised a hand in a placating gesture. It seemed as if he didn't want to make any quick movements. She wasn't some dangerous animal, for God's sake.

"Okay. I'm sorry, too. What do you think we should do?" He spoke calmly, sounding as if he actually meant it when he said he was sorry.

A bit more of Chloe's anger dissipated. "Tell her we were following up on a lead which could tell us more about what happened to us at the crime scene, and we needed the box for it, but it didn't pan out, and we'll get it back to her asap."

Lucifer looked like he wanted to argue but changed his mind at the last second. He nodded.

"It'll be waiting for us in evidence once we figure out how to make it work again, okay? It's a safe place to store it, actually", Chloe reassured him, wondering why he wasn't putting up a fight over this.

"Makes sense", he said, and Chloe still couldn't figure out what had gotten into him.

She reached out her hand. "You know what? Let me write it. Otherwise, she'll pick up on your weird phrasing and excessive use of emojis."

Lucifer gingerly handed her the phone. He cleared his throat. "Would you mind putting those away?", he asked nonchalantly, nodding his head to the side. Chloe followed his eyes and saw that the wings were spread out to almost their full length on either side of her, looking quite threatening. 

"Sorry. I didn't realize they were doing that." She managed to fold them up without problems, grimacing when the movement dislodged more glass.

"I am truly sorry. I know your work is important to you, and I would never do anything to jeopardize that. At the time, I thought it would be a quick fix, and we'd return it immediately, and afterwards it just kind of- slipped my mind."

Chloe, being intimately familiar with both her own voice and Lucifer's moods, picked up on a strange tone on the last part. Lucifer sounded almost scared. 

"Are you okay?", she asked. It was a stupid question, really. Obviously, he wasn't, just like she wasn't. But there seemed to be something else going on.

"I don't want to burden you with even more worries. Let's just-"

"Out with it. I think you can assume I can handle it at this point", she said, infusing her voice with a little of Lucifer's trademark smugness.

He sighed. "Fine. You know, you and I, we are- ah, very different. You're a mortal and I'm- I'm not. My mind works in a completely different way. There's millennia of memories and experiences and, I guess, all of _me_ to contain, and I'm not sure-"

"Are you trying to tell me that you're worried my puny mortal mind can't handle all of your magnificient angelic presence?", Chloe asked, voice dripping with sarcasm.

"That's not how I would have phrased it, but yes."

"Okay, Lucifer. As someone who has been dealing with your _angelic presence_ in my life for quite some time now, let me assure you that there is nothing to worry about."

"But what if there is? What if forgetting things is already the first sign of deterioration?" He sounded genuinely scared.

Chloe put her hands on his arms. "So, you've never forgotten anything while you were still yourself, have you?"

He fidgeted in place. "Sure I have, but-"

"But nothing. It's going to be fine."

"Detective, you're literally the last mortal I would ever want to harm."

Chloe was taken aback for a moment. "Why is that?", she asked, wondering what made her so special.

"Because you're special", he replied as if he'd read her mind.

"But why?"

He started fidgeting again. "You're- you just are. Let's just do our utmost to get this situation reverted as soon as possible, okay?"

He was very blatantly trying to steer her away from something he didn't want to talk about. Chloe let him get away with it, again. It didn't seem like the right time to force the issue. She nodded her agreement.

"Okay. But the first thing we're trying is talking to Amenadiel."

Lucifer's shoulders slumped, and Chloe knew he'd accepted defeat on the matter. She nodded her thanks, and picked up his phone again to finally text his brother.


	14. Chapter 14

Amenadiel looked from Chloe to Lucifer, and back again. He shook his head.

"You must really believe me an idiot, brother, if you think I'm going to fall for such an outrageous lie", he said, addressing Chloe.

Lucifer sighed. He stepped closer to Amenadiel, starting to speak in a language Chloe had never heard before. Amenadiel's eyes widened. Lucifer stopped talking, while Amenadiel continued staring at him in shock.

"Lucy?", he asked, disbelief evident in his voice. Lucifer rolled his eyes, nodding.

Amenadiel continued staring at him for a couple of seconds longer. Then the corner of his mouth started twitching. He broke out into loud laughter. At some point he started to bend over, holding his stomach.

Lucifer turned around to Chloe, giving her an exasperated expression saying _see? he's useless_. Amenadiel used one hand to steady himself on the kitchen counter while he continued laughing. Lucifer rolled his eyes again.

It took quite some time before Amenadiel had himself back under control. He stood up straight again, wiping the tears from his eyes.

"Oh, that's rich. You're a _mortal woman_."

Lucifer let out an exasperated sigh. "Yes, yes, feel free to delight in my misery, as usual. But please show some consideration for the mortal who is currently stuck in my body."

Amenadiel's head whipped around to Chloe, and he sobered up immediately. He looked sheepish.

"I'm terribly sorry, Chloe, I didn't mean to make fun of your situation, I-"

Chloe glared at him. "No, you just meant to make fun of Lucifer. Very supportive of you."

Amenadiel had the decency to look chagrined. He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Right. Sorry. Where is the-" He said a word in the strange language which Chloe couldn't have repeated if she'd tried.

"It is currently in our possession", Lucifer replied.

Amenadiel nodded, clearly relieved. "Give it to me", he said, holding out his hand.

"Now hold on a minute", Chloe said, "We agreed to take it back to the precinct. It has to go back into evidence."

Amenadiel glared at Lucifer. "You agreed to this, brother? To put a divine artifact back into mortal hands? Surely, you must realize the havoc it could cause?"

"You mean other than the havoc it _has_ already caused?" Lucifer got closer to Amenadiel, trying to stare him down. The effect was ruined slightly by him having to look up at his brother. "It was already in mortal hands to begin with, and _I_ sure as hell didn't put it there. What do you think he wants to tell me this time, huh?"

Amenadiel lifted his hands in a defensive gesture. "I'm just trying to help."

Chloe stepped in between the two of them. "Amenadiel, do you know anything more about the-" She managed to get out two syllables that sounded similar to the word they'd used earlier, then gave up. "-the box that could help us get back to normal?"

Amenadiel looked at her, then back to Lucifer. He looked up, thinking about her question. "It's used to collect souls that, for whatever reason, have been lost. It's not supposed to switch them. And it should be in the hands of one of our siblings, being used to do Father's bidding. I don't know how it ended up here, in the hands of a mortal. Such a thing is unheard of."

"Do you know how we can fix it? Any idea how to switch us back?"

Amenadiel shook his head, a look of pity on his features, and Chloe despaired for a moment. Then there was a sudden look of realization on his face.

"I think- I recall something like this happening before. To two mortals. A long time ago."

"Yes?", Lucifer prompted him impatiently when he didn't say any more.

"I don't know the details. I wasn't the one who got sent to fix it."

Lucifer threw his arms in the air theatrically. "What you're saying is that, once again, you're bloody useless."

Amenadiel smirked at him. "I keep having trouble remembering that it's you in there, until you go and be a complete _drama queen_ as usual, and then it's suddenly so much easier to see."

Lucifer huffed, glaring at him. "So, do you actually have anything useful to say or was this a complete waste of time?"

"I'm pretty sure the events were recorded in human lore somehow. I just need to do some research." He held out his hand again. "It would make things easier if you gave me the box."

Chloe shook her head vehemently. "It's going back into evidence."

Amenadiel sighed. "And what if something happens to another mortal because of it? Do you really want that on your conscience?"

Chloe broke eye contact with him, suddenly doubtful. What if something happened to Ella? 

"If we don't return it, it will look like I lost evidence from an ongoing murder investigation."

"It's not like it's the murder weapon", Lucifer interjected, "It's only of interest to Ms. Lopez because she's trying to find out what happened to us at the crime scene."

Chloe started chewing her bottom lip. "It _could_ be the murder weapon for all we know. Could it kill somebody when they touch it?"

Lucifer and Amenadiel exchanged glances. "It's not supposed to. Even if it did, I should think _death by divine artifact_ would be a tough nut to crack, even for Ms. Lopez."

Chloe rubbed her hand over her eyes. "What do you suggest we do then?"

"I could return it, and then we steal it from evidence? That way, no blame would fall on you", Lucifer suggested.

"Fantastic plan", Chloe replied, voice dripping with sarcasm. 

"If only one of us had the ability to stop time, that would be incredibly useful right now", Lucifer said. Chloe shot him a questioning look, but he didn't elaborate any further.

"If I recall correctly", Amenadiel said, sounding angry, "I'm here because _you_ asked for my help. I can leave again if you don't want it. I have other things to do besides cleaning up your messes, you know."

Lucifer looked like he was going to start an argument but thought better of it. He glanced at Chloe, then turned back to Amenadiel. He swallowed. "I do apologize, brother. Please do your research."

Amenadiel looked stunned for a moment, as if this were the last thing he'd ever expected to hear from Lucifer. Then he gave a quick nod, and left.

Chloe stepped up to Lucifer, watching him go. "Well, that went well."

Lucifer chuckled. "Could have gone a lot worse, actually. "

"What now? We promised to give the box to Ella, but I don't want to risk any harm coming to her."

Lucifer took out the box, scrutinizing it. "I know an expert in producing counterfeit items who might be able to help us. The design is not that complicated."

"You want to give Ella a _fake_ box?"

"That would solve all our problems, wouldn't it?"

"She's never going to fall for that. She'll notice some small detail that your _expert_ missed. Besides, I'm sure he'll need way too long to fabricate it."

"Not if he's properly motivated", Lucifer said, grinning.

Chloe rolled her eyes. "Let me guess, he owes you a favour?"

"He does indeed."

"Is there anybody in this city who _hasn't_ sold their soul to the devil?"

Lucifer huffed, looking affronted. "Please. As if I care for souls. They're not legal tender anywhere. Now, let's go meet him. You'll have to do the talking."

Chloe sighed. "I don't think I'm up for pretending to be you."

Lucifer looked her up and down, taking in her disheveled state. He hummed. "Indeed. It's an atrocity what you have done to me, and in such a short time, no less. I guess we'll just have to make due with what we got."

" _Lucifer_. I stilll have a job. You still have a job, I mean. You know what I mean."

"Right. First, I turn down the case for personal reasons, _then_ we let Michelangelo make a fake box, then we give the fake box to Ms. Lopez, and then we start working on our actual problem?"

"I'm getting a headache", Chloe complained, "Michelangelo? _Seriously_?"

"Yes, the fellow can be a tad pretentious, but his work is amazing."

Chloe rubbed her hand over her eyes. "Why is everything with you always so complicated?", she whined.

"Excuse me?", Lucifer replied, affronted again.

"Sorry. The whole situation is grating on my nerves. And now we're meeting with criminals and fabricating fake evidence. I just feel like there has to be a better solution."

"I'm all ears", Lucifer said, lifting his eyebrows expectantly. Well, technically, her eyebrows.

Chloe wrecked her brain for an alternative plan, but came up short. She wondered if being in Lucifer's body was affecting her ability to think. After all, he usually had the attention span of a goldfish. Maybe some of that was rubbing off on her.

He grinned smugly at her lack of alternative suggestions. "Right. That's what I thought. Now, let's make you presentable."

Chloe groaned, having a rough idea of how much time Lucifer spend making himself 'presentable' every day.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My apologies for the long breaks between updates, I've started working on an original short story. It's eating up all of my writing time, so please have a little patience.

Chloe parked the Corvette, making a relieved sigh. One thing less to worry about. Didn't get a scratch into Lucifer's precious car.

She closed her eyes for a moment, preparing herself. _You used to be an actress. You were trained to do this. You got this._

She slowly exhaled the breath she'd been holding. _I'm Lucifer Morningstar. I own a night club. I drive expensive cars. I sleep with somebody else every night. I enjoy singing and playing the piano._ She chanced a glance over at Lucifer, who was looking at her expectantly, waiting for her to exit the car. _I'm angry at my father. Who is God. I'm the devil_. 

She took a shaky breath. _I like solving murders._ Her train of thought derailed momentarily. _Why? I like punishing people. But if I wanted to do that I could have stayed in hell in the first place. Why come to L.A. of all places, and solve murders with Chloe Decker? What could possibly interest an all-powerful archangel to work with a run of the mill mortal day in, day out?_

"Detective? If you're uncomfortable with this we can find another way."

He sounded genuinely concerned, worried about her well-being. _What can he possibly get out of our partnership? He's immortal. He must have seen and done everything by now._

Lucifer cocked his head to the side, throwing her a worried glance. Chloe couldn't help but wonder if he had some hidden agenda, some nefarious _scheme_. But then why tell her he's the devil from day one? Wouldn't it have been much easier to deceive her if he'd just lied about his identity? And what could possibly be his end goal if he was playing some long con? Her head was starting to spin.

"Okay. Let's just drive off again. Better yet, let me drive", Lucifer said, sounding worried. Either about her or the well-being of his car, she couldn't tell.

He opened the door, starting to get out. Chloe reached over, placing her hand on his arm, stopping him. His eyes snapped up to hers.

"Don't. I can do this", she said, managing to sound a lot more certain than she felt.

* * *

At least she was looking the part. They had driven by Lux, and Lucifer had given her one of his favourite three piece suits to wear. She had to admit it looked really nice on him. Her. Whatever. Then again, she'd probably have trouble finding anything in his wardrobe that didn't. Somehow he could pull almost anything off.

He'd taken about 40 minutes to do things to her hair, using some weird equipment and expensive-looking product. It made Chloe feel a bit ridiculous. There was a reason she wore her own hair long, in a ponytail. It was a hairstyle that took almost no time or effort to create in the morning. 

She'd managed to make the wings disappear again relatively easily this time. She was starting to get the hang of them. They felt more like a limb on her body now, rather than an alien presence. Granted, a limb that was attached in the wrong place, and moved in strange ways, but still a part of her. She could feel them even now, in spite of the fact that they weren't really present, a light, comfortable weight on her back.

She shook her head, consciously cutting off any thoughts related to Lucifer's wings. She didn't want to risk the trigger-happy things popping out again. She took another deep breath, then knocked on the nondescript door. For someone who was supposedly an 'expert' in his field, he had chosen a very dark and dirty alley to run his business.

A massive broad-shouldered guy, who was even taller than Lucifer, opened the door, glaring down at her. Chloe gave him a cocky grin.

"I'm here to see Mickey." They had decided in advance that she wouldn't attempt a British accent. Not that there had been much of a choice. Accents weren't really her strong suit.

"Michelangelo is not seeing anybody today", he replied, sounding bored. He started to close the door in her face, but Chloe intervened, pushing back the door, and the surprised guard along with it.

"Oh, he'll see me", she said, giving him the predatory grin she'd seen Lucifer use on some of their suspects in the past. The guy stared at her, then at the door, eyebrows drawn together in confusion. 

"How did you do that?", he asked, sounding genuinely baffled how she could have possibly worked up the strength to push him out of the way. Chloe rolled her eyes.

"Do I look like somebody who has time to waste on thick-skulled henchmen?" She made a shooing gesture with her hands. "Go get your boss. Tell him Lucifer is here to collect."

"Now, listen, pal, I don't know how you pulled off that trick with the door, but-"

Chloe slowly advanced on him and was delighted to see the man take a step backwards. Her voice was menacing, yet calm. "I can assure you, turning me away will anger your boss as well as me. It's a loose-loose for you. Last chance. Off you go."

He didn't start walking, but he did get his phone out and made a call.

"Sorry to- Yes, I know you said not to disturb you today, but-"

Chloe grabbed the phone out of his hand. "Mickey! Can you tell your dimwitted employee to let me through already?" Chloe rolled her eyes at the reply she got. "I'm deeply hurt that you would even have to ask that. It's Lucifer, pal." She listened for a moment. "Funny. Haha. No, I suffered a hit to the head. Knocked the British right out of me, I'm afraid. Here."

She handed the phone back. The guard listened for a second, then motioned for them to follow him. Chloe leaned down to Lucifer as they were walking down the corridor. "This is a lot more fun than I thought it would be", she whispered, grinning. Lucifer gave her a strange look, somewhere between worry and amusement. There might have been a hint of arousal in there as well.

They were led into some sort of workshop. The room was in complete and utter chaos. If there was some order to it, Chloe couldn't discern it.

A chair in the center of the chaos swiveled around, revealing a fat, balding man in his late 50's. He plastered on a fake smile as soon as he saw her.

"Lucifer! My friend. It really is you. What can I do for you? Excuse Francis, he is under strict orders not to let anybody disturb me today, I was feeling inspired. But of course I'll make time for you."

"Francis?", Chloe said, turning around to the massive wall of muscles that had accompanied them. He definitely didn't look like a Francis. Francis gave her a sardonic smile, then turned around and walked away. Somebody had an attitude.

"Today is your lucky day", Chloe stated, once again putting on the mask of the confident, self-assured playboy that Lucifer wore so well.

"How is that?", the man replied, sounding suspicious.

"Because today you get a chance to repay the favour you owe me. And it's a simple request, too. A walk in the park, really." The man lifted his eyebrows, looking very much like he was waiting for the catch in this offer. Chloe took the box out of her pocket.

They'd spend quite some time arguing about this. The fact that they were handing a potentially dangerous artifact to an innocent bystander. Lucifer had pointed out that he was far from innocent, and that the chances that the box could do any further harm in its current state were minimal. Chloe still had an uneasy feeling about the whole thing. Even if he was a shady one, he was still a citizen of L.A., somebody she should protect from harm, not knowingly endanger.

With a heavy heart, she handed him the box. He turned it around in his hands, studying it. It didn't seem to have any effect on him. Chloe released a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.

"All I need from you is a perfect replica of this box", she stated matter-of-factly.

The self-proclaimed artist still looked suspicious, like he couldn't quite believe his luck.

"That's all?", he asked doubtfully. Chloe nodded. "No problem at all, my friend, in about 2 to 3 days, I should be able to-"

"You have two hours", Chloe interrupted him in a voice that brook no argument.

"Impossible. First, I have to find the right wood to-"

"Two hours", Chloe repeated in the most commanding tone she could muster up, then turned around and left. She stopped short when she realized that Lucifer wasn't following. She turned back around, seeing him standing rooted to the spot, staring at her. She raised her eyebrows at him, her expression clearly conveying _Are you coming, or what?_

He made a little shake of his head, as if he were coming out of some trance, then he quickly followed her out of the room.

"What the hell was that all about?", she asked him once they were alone back in the corridor.

Lucifer cleared his throat. "Apologies. I got a bit distracted for a moment there."

"Distracted by what, exactly?"

He looked sheepish for a moment. "You did a marvellous job as me. Quite mesmerizing. You should show your bossy side more often."

"I don't have a bossy side", Chloe said, slightly irritated by the accusation that anything about that performance could be part of her actual character.

Lucifer chuckled. "You do. And I would like to see it again some time. Preferably in the bedroom." He gave her a lecherous grin which looked completely out of place on her face. Chloe rolled her eyes. It had become somewhat of a reflex when dealing with Lucifer.

"Francis", she greeted as they exited the building.

Francis gave them a curt nod, looking relieved to be rid of them. Chloe didn't blame him.


	16. Chapter 16

" _Michelangelo_ is working on the replica." Chloe crossed the corresponding line off on the whiteboard in front of them.

"You managed to get the case reassigned, and two days off for personal reasons." She crossed out another line on the left side of the board.

"You collected on a favour to have a contractor fix my bathroom today", Chloe added, blushing as she recalled the events of that morning. She crossed that item off as well.

"I've more or less figured out how to stay in charge of the wings." She added brackets around that one. She didn't feel nearly confident enough in her wing handling to cross it off completely.

"Coming back to our actual problem-" She turned to the right side of the board which had nothing on it, except _Amenadiel researching previous case & potential cure_. "-we don't really have a lot of leads."

She frowned, turning around to face Lucifer, who was staring out the window, not paying attention. 

"Why do you keep a whiteboard in the penthouse, anyway?"

He turned his head back towards her, grinning. "You know, sometimes when you're planning a really adventurous series of positions, it helps to visualize-"

Chloe lifted up her hand to stop him from saying anything more. "Nevermind. Now, would you please pay attention to what we're doing?"

He nodded, looking chagrined. "Sorry. I prefer taking action. Tell me something I can do, I'll do it."

Chloe frowned at the board, adding _Find a way to make the box work again_ on the right side. She continued writing, in brackets below, _try placing it on a church altar_ , then crossed it out.

"Any other suggestions how to repair the box?", she asked, worrying her bottom lip.

Lucifer stepped up next to her, looking at the board. "There is a priest in Johannesburg who specializes in divine artifacts. He might be able to help or he might never have heard of this one."

"Could we ask Amenadiel to fly there? How long would it take him to get from here to Johannesburg?"

"I'm afraid Amenadiel took a bit of a tumble recently, and is currently not in possession of his wings."

Her head snapped around to Lucifer. "Amenadiel _fell_?"

Chloe tried to wrap her head around this new information, brow furrowing in confusion. "Didn't you fall as well? How come you still have wings and he doesn't? For that matter, didn't you tell me that you cut off your wings? Do they _grow back_?"

"All great questions. And I'm sure the answers will lead to even more questions. Let's leave it at Amenadiel doesn't have wings at the moment, whereas you do. I promise, once we're back to normal, we'll sit down and I'll anwer all of your questions."

" _All_ of them? That conversation could take a couple of days."

Lucifer shrugged. "If that's what you want."

"You would spend _days_ answering my questions?"

"Sure."

"Why?"

His face scrunched up in confusion. "I told you I would never lie to you. If you want to know the whole truth, I'm happy to provide."

"Why _me_?"

"Umm." He fidgeted a little. "I don't mean to be evasive, but I really think we should solve the problem at hand first."

He was, in fact, being evasive. Maybe she wasn't that special after all, and he just didn't want her to know that. She nodded. That must be it. "I get it. Every once in while, when you get bored, you pick a mortal and follow them around, right?"

He looked even more confused now. "What? No. I've never done that before. Usually, my interest in any given mortal is sated the next morning. Now, can we get back to-"

She turned to face him, suddenly furious. "So, you're doing all of this just to get me to _sleep with you_? You're simply spending time with me because your mind tricks didn't work, and now you're looking for alternative ways to get me into bed?" 

She glared at him. A voice in the back of her head tried to remind her that he did, in fact, have a chance to sleep with her, and had chosen not to because she was inebriated at the time.

Lucifer stared at her, his expression affronted and horrified at the same time. "No. Detective, that's not- I mean, maybe when we first met, I was intrigued by the challenge, but it's not about that anymore, our partnership means so much more to me-"

He stopped aprubtly, looking shocked. He'd been about to reveal more than he'd meant to. And there was the crux of the matter. Did he have feelings for her? It would certainly explain his interest in working with her. Did she want him to have feelings for her? Did she see things that weren't there, because she wanted them to be there? What if she really wasn't more than another scratch in his bedpost? 

She closed her eyes for a brief moment. They needed to talk about this at some point. She had so many questions. But now wasn't the time. She would feel much more at ease if she got back into her own body first. That would also make it much easier to walk away if it turned out that all he wanted was to have sex with her. _You know that's not the case_ , the voice in the back of her mind piped up. She ignored it.

Chloe opened her eyes again, lifting up her hands. "Sorry. Let's just focus on the task at hand, and have the long conversation afterwards, okay?"

Lucifer nodded, looking relieved.

"Okay. Is there anything else we can try here?", she asked.

Lucifer looked at the board, thinking. "I suppose, if we're really desperate, you can try asking dad to fix it. He wouldn't answer me, but maybe you have a minimal chance of getting a reply."

"What, you mean _pray_ for the box to work again?"

"Hey, I never said it was a _good_ idea. But there's no harm in trying. Except coming to the realization that dad doesn't give a damn, which I always felt was quite obvious anyway."

"Anything else?"

"We could try knocking our heads together really hard", he deadpanned. Chloe couldn't tell if he was serious or not.

"Any other brilliant ideas?"

"How about we spend the day in each other's shoes and gain a more meaningful, deeper understand of the other?"

" _What_?"

"Isn't that the go-to solution when this sort of thing happens in a film? Once the characters have gained more perspective, they are allowed to switch back."

" _Seriously_? You're suggesting solutions based on movies?"

He glared upwards. "Oh, don't put it past my father to try and teach me some kind of lesson like this."

Chloe couldn't believe she was actually considering this. The things desperation will do to you. "How would we go about that, exactly? You have already read Trixie a ton of bedtime stories and I have pretended to be you. What more can we do? Oh God, I don't have to spend a whole day like you, and pick up some women at Lux, do I?" There was a look of horror on her face.

"While I have to admit that I would very much like to see that, I think we can safely assume that it is me who is being taught a lesson by my inconsiderate jerk of a father, who simply didn't care how his actions would affect you. And, just a side note, you can spend a day as me, and pick up men only, if that makes you more comfortable."

"Gotta say, I'm not into picking up random strangers for a one night stand on a general basis."

Lucifer shook his head, tsking. "The things you miss out on."

Chloe looked back at the board, adding several more lines on the right side. _Lucifer: gain more insight on being me_ , she wrote under the top line, then added _Pray for the box to work again_. Below that, she put _Contact divine artifact specialist in Johannesburg_.

She hesitated for a moment, then added _Smash our heads together really hard_ , with _last resort_ in brackets behind it. Lucifer chuckled. She turned to him, and he gave her a bright smile, clearly delighted that she was even considering his nonsense suggestions.

"Here's what we're going to do. I try praying first, because it's easy and we can cross it off quickly. Meanwhile, you find some way to get the priest on the phone. If that doesn't yield any results, you spend more time with Trixie when she's back from school. You already know a lot about my work anyway, so if you really want to learn more about being me, that's where we should start."

"Yes, ma'am", he said. "Or should I say, person who is never ever bossy."

"I'm not bossy. I just like things to be organized, and issues to be worked on systematically."

"Whatever you say, boss." 

She rolled her eyes, but couldn't help smiling at him as well.


	17. Chapter 17

"We're back", Chloe announced gleefully.

"Oh joy", Francis deadpanned. Chloe smiled at him.

"Missed me?"

"With all of my being", the guard replied, voice dripping with sarcasm. "Not a minute went by that I didn't wonder, when will those two be back?"

Chloe chuckled. Francis turned around, leading the two of them to the workshop without another word.

If anything, the room seemed to be in even more chaos than before. Its owner was standing at one of the wooden workbenches, his back to them. He didn't turn around when they entered.

Chloe cleared her throat. He didn't react.

"Time's up", Chloe said without any further preamble.

Michelangelo finally turned around to face them, a manic glint in his eye that hadn't been there on their earlier visit. Chloe tensed immediately, instinctively reaching for her gun. It wasn't there. She wasn't even wearing the holster. 

"Ah, you're back. Yes. Good." He held up the box. "You have _got_ to tell me what's inside."

Chloe gave him a measuring look. Something was definitely off about him. "I don't believe that was part of our arrangement."

"Ah, yes, no, of course. I just wanted to make sure the illusion was perfect, and I couldn't open the box without using force, so naturally, I didn't. I would never dare to risk compromising the original. But I X-rayed it and-"

"You did _what_?", Lucifer interrupted him, stepping closer. Michelangelo took a step backwards, hitting the bench.

"I needed at least a basic idea about the inside without prying it open", he defended himself. "But it was no use. It looks like it's made of lead on the screen, there is no way to look inside. How is that even possible? It's light like wood, yet impossible to X-ray. What is it _made of_?"

His voice took on a wondrous note at the end, and he held the box up in front of him as if it were a great treasure. Lucifer snatched it out of his hands in one swift movement, stashing it in his jacket pocket. For a surreal moment, Chloe thought Michelangelo would tackle him, and she stepped forward to intervene. He got himself under control before laying a hand on Lucifer, though. 

"Quite right, quite right. It's yours. Just out of curiosity, how much would it cost for you to part with it?", he asked, greed evident in his voice.

"It's not for sale", Chloe said before Lucifer got a chance to reply. "Now where's the replica?"

"I'm willing to pay a more than reasonable amount-"

Chloe stepped into his space and he drew back, leaning against the bench. "We are not interested in your money. Give us the replica and we'll be on our way."

She was getting frustrated with him, and it showed. She wondered briefly if maybe she had a shorter fuse now because she was the _devil_. Or was it just that she was annoyed with the whole situation because they were wasting their time instead of looking for solutions? Either way, she hoped he would stop messing around, and they could be on their way already.

Michelangelo studied her face, apparently coming to the conclusion that he would not make any headway here. He sighed, turned around and picked up a second box.

He held it out to Chloe, but Lucifer snatched it away again before she even had a chance to lift her arm. He took the other one back out and held them up next to each other, scrutinizing them.

"Hmmm", he said, holding them even closer to his face, squinting. Chloe rolled her eyes, sighing. 

"Well?", she asked impatiently.

Lucifer gave the boxes another long look, then he smiled. "Great work as always, Mickey."

Michelangelo frowned at him. "Do I know you?"

Chloe sighed again. They were getting sloppy. They should get out of there as quickly as possible.

She forced herself to give the man a bright smile, clapping him on the shoulder. "We're even. It was a pleasure doing business with you. Let me know if you ever need another favour."

Michelangelo opened his mouth. "You can't have the box", Chloe interrupted before he even had a chance to ask for it again. He closed his mouth with a snap, face falling. He nodded, looking defeated, and went back to his workbench.

In the hallway, Lucifer turned to her, shaking his head. "This is my fault. I'm sorry. I didn't think it through. Sometimes when mortals spend too long in the presence of something divine, they form an inexplicable attachment to it."

Chloe nodded. "Sure, kinda like what happened to me."

He stared at her blankly.

"You know. Forming an inexplicable attachment to you." 

He frowned, and she grinned. "Very funny", he said, pouting. 

Chloe turned serious again immediately, stopping Lucifer. Something had been bothering her ever since they'd been presented with the boxes. "Do you think he formed such a strong attachment that he would try to cheat us, and make two fake boxes?"

Lucifer scoffed. "He wouldn't try to cheat _me_. He's not an idiot."

Chloe remained doubtful. It must have shown on her face, because he quickly added, "Besides, I can tell the difference. I know which one is the real deal."

He took out the two small boxes, holding them up for inspection. "Can you?", he asked curiously.

She glanced at the boxes, shaking her head. "It doesn't matter. If you're certain which one is the original, that's good enough for me. I trust you."

"You do?", he asked, surprised.

They were interrupted by a familiar voice. "If you two are quite done hanging out in our hallway, I can show you to the door now."

Chloe slipped back into character without missing a beat. "Ah Francis, always all business, such a shame."

"Yes, alas I am not allowed to form personal attachments to the artist's business partners." His face was neutral. Chloe couldn't tell if he was serious or still joking around.

"Okay, I gotta know, how much does he pay you extra in order to be referred to as 'the artist'?", she asked.

She saw the corner of his lip twitch a little, but that was all the reaction she got from him. He opened the front door for them, showing them out.

Chloe turned around after they walked out, grinning at him. "You know, you might be annoyed now, but you'll miss me when I'm gone. Trust me. I have that effect."

"I highly doubt it. Have a fantastic life", he said, voice devoid of emotion, closing the door.


	18. Chapter 18

They went back to the penthouse before going to the precinct, mostly because it was on the route anyway, and because Chloe wanted to have a word with Lucifer.

"You need to step up your game."

" _Excuse me?_ "

"Ella will notice every single thing that's off about you. She's amazing at picking up on details that nobody else sees, and putting the story together. You need to do a better job than last time. I'm sure she's already suspicious." She worried her bottom lip, thinking. "Maybe it's best if I just drop the box off by myself."

He snorted. " _I_ need to do a better job? You can't even do something basic like my accent."

"Yes, but you get away with being weird on a daily basis, whereas I-" She was interrupted by the elevator doors opening with a bing.

A tall, muscular young man walked in. He was wearing a tight pair of jeans, and no shirt. He had a white towel slung over his right shoulder. Chloe estimated him to be in his early twenties. 

"Lucifer, I hope you're ready to be amaz-" He stopped short when he saw Lucifer, frowning. "I didn't realize we would have company."

Chloe rolled her eyes, lifting her hands up in exasperation. " _Seriously._ Can anybody just walk in here? Do you have any notion of security?"

The guy frowned. He was impossibly attractive, even by L.A. standards. Chloe noticed that besides the towel, he was carrying some sort of lotion bottle. She didn't look any closer. 

"What happened to your voice?", he asked, and Chloe _had it_ with hearing that question.

"I'm sorry I have to cancel our appointment. Bye", she snapped at him, irritated.

" _Appointment_?", he repeated incredulously.

"Date?", she tried.

" _Date_?", he repeated again, sounding even more incredulous. She heard Lucifer chuckle next to her.

Chloe exhaled a breath, rubbing the bridge of her nose with her hand. "I'm sorry to cancel our _thing_ but something important came up, and I don't have time."

He came closer, placing both of his hands flat on her chest. Chloe gasped, then remembered that he wasn't touching her breasts, since there were no breasts to be touched.

He glared at Lucifer. "If she's the thing that came up, I'm fine with her watching. She might learn a thing or two." He sounded very full of himself. He and Lucifer must get along great.

"I would very much like to watch", Lucifer stated, sounding amused. It was clear that he didn't intend to be of any help with this.

Chloe grabbed the guy's wrists, removing his hands from her chest. "I'm not in the mood."

His eyebrows shot up. This was obviously not what he had expected to hear. Chloe took a step backwards to get some distance between them.

"I can get you in the mood", he said, in a voice that was meant to be seductive, but to Chloe it sounded mostly corny, with a touch of creepy. He apparently had issues with rejection.

"I think it's time you left", Lucifer said, stepping in between the two of them, his earlier amusement gone, replaced by a threatening tone.

He looked from her to Lucifer, then back at her. Chloe felt a bit silly with Lucifer standing protectively in front of her in his current form, about a head smaller than her.

"I just came here to have a good time", the guy said defensively.

"Have a good time somewhere else", Lucifer replied.

Instead of leaving, he looked imploringly at Chloe, his expression saying _Can you please kick out the crazy woman so we can have some fun?_

When she didn't react, he said, "Fine. I don't need to let myself get treated like this." He pointed at himself. "Your loss", he stated dramatically, then turned around and left.

Chloe turned to Lucifer, raising her eyebrows. "What the hell was that all about?" She held up her hand. "No, wait, on second thought, don't tell me, I don't think I want to know."

Lucifer looked sheepish. Then his expression suddenly turned into one of dawning realization, as if he'd just remembered that he forgot to turn off the stove.

Chloe glared at him. "Don't tell me that you just remembered you have an orgy or something in your agenda for tonight."

"Or something", he said, smiling apologetically at her.

"You're _unbelievable_ ", she said, "how do you even find the time to work on cases with me, with all of this going on?"

"Life is short. You gotta make the most of it."

"You're immortal", Chloe reminded him, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"Yeah, well, but their life is short, and really, the best possible use they could make of their time is having sex with me."

Chloe rolled her eyes so hard she might have pulled a muscle.

"Alright, alright, just give me my phone and I'll cancel it."

She handed him his phone and watched over his shoulder as he started tapping on the screen.

"You made a _facebook_ event for your orgy?", she asked. She shouldn't be surprised by stuff like this at this point, but _come on_.

"It's not an orgy", Lucifer said, moving away. Somebody else might have sounded defensive while saying those words, but he sounded thoughtful, as if he were trying to recall why he _hadn't_ organized an orgy.

Chloe rubbed her hand over her eyes, so very done with this conversation, and the situation as a whole. "Right. Nevermind. As I was saying, we need to be very careful when talking to Ella again."

He scoffed. "A little more faith, detective. I got this."

"Right. Just hand her the box, and get out of there. Tell her we've got an important case we need to work on right away."

"That sounds suspiciously like you're asking me to tell a lie."

"It's not a lie. We are working on an important case. It just happens to be a personal one."

He made a non-commitical sound, still focussed on his phone.

" _Lucifer_ "

He looked up, giving her a quizzical look.

"Promise me you won't spend more time with Ella than absolutely necessary. I would go on my own, but she might think it's weird I entrusted you with the evidence."

"Detective. I can handle dropping a box off with Ms. Lopez without giving myself away."

"Sure you can. Let's just make it quick."

"Your trust in me is truly touching."


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to give you an idea what to expect, this will only have 3-5 more chapters until it's complete.

Chloe couldn't help but wonder how she managed to forget about her current condition for several minutes at a time, or even longer. She would be doing a mundane task, like walking, or sending a message on the phone, and somehow her brain would tune out the fact that she was way too tall or that the long fingers tapping over the screen weren't hers.

And then her thought process would get interrupted by something insignificant, like an itch on her back, and it would all slam back into her. This happened to her dozens of times during the day, and she simply couldn't wrap her head around how she could keep forgetting such a monumental thing as being in the wrong body.

She'd have thought it would drive her insane to be aware of it constantly, but this was even worse. Every time it happened, it was like it was starting all over again, and she had to remind herself that there was no reason to freak out, that this was normal now. She didn't have the time or the energy to keep freaking out about being Lucifer over and over again.

It was worse at the precinct. Her mind went on autopilot all the time, and she'd do things like sitting down at her desk before remembering that it wasn't her desk anymore, not to everybody else. Thankfully, Lucifer was the kind of person who would just sit in her chair without a second thought, so none of her behaviour had raised any suspicion so far.

Now, she stood at the desk that wasn't hers anymore, collecting her thoughts. She'd told Lucifer to be on top of his game, but she needed to heed her own advice as well. Granted, people expected weird behavior from Lucifer, so she had a bit more leeway than him, but there was no reason to tempt fate and make Ella of all people suspicious.

Lucifer raised his eyebrows at her, a questioning look on his face. Chloe took a deep breath, exhaled it slowly, and nodded. He started walking towards the lab without another word, and she followed close behind. The broken lab door had been removed but not replaced yet. The empty spot where the door should have been was a stark reminder that she needed to be careful. If she underestimated her strength again, even while doing something innocent like shaking somebody's hand, people would get hurt.

"Hello", Lucifer said cheerfully. Ella looked up from her microscope, frowning. It had taken him all of one word to raise her suspicions. Fantastic. Lucifer seemed to have realized his mistake as well, because he continued in a much more neutral tone. "I believe you wanted to have another look at this." He took out the box and held it out to her.

The tension in the room while they waited for her reaction was palpable. Chloe tried to force herself to relax. If Ella recognized it as fake, it would make matters much more complicated for them. Chloe realized that she was holding her breath and released it.

"Hmm? Oh yeah, put it over there, I'll have a look later."

Ella pointed to a spot in the corner without even giving the box another glance. Well, that was certainly anti-climactic. Chloe gave Lucifer a small nudge with her elbow, as he was standing frozen in place, apparently also having expected a bit more interest.

He made a small shake of the head, then placed the box where Ella had indicated, and returned to his previous spot, glancing at the box. He hesitated long enough to prompt Ella to look up again, frowning once more. "Is there anything else you need? I'm super swamped today. The Peralta case-" She stopped suddenly, looking back and forth between the two of them, a worried expression on her face. "Are you two okay?"

"We're just splendid, and there's nothing else we need. Bye", Chloe replied cheerfully, grabbing Lucifer by the arm and dragging him through the open doorway. Once they were out of earshot, she hissed at him, "What the hell was that? Could you have acted any weirder?"

"Sorry. Do you think she bought it?"

Chloe shook her head, running her hand through her hair. Well, Lucifer's hair. "No way to be sure until she decides to examine it. In the meantime, we-"

Lucifer's phone rang, and she glared at him, waiting for him to pick it up. He raised his eyebrows, and she remembered that it was her phone at the moment. She fished it out of his suit pocket, checking the caller ID. Amenadiel. She handed the phone to Lucifer.

"Tell me you have good news, br- bro." Chloe gave him another glare. They really should have a better hang of this by now. Instead both of them kept making mistakes like him almost addressing Amenadiel as brother, when the people around them were well aware that she was an only child. Not that _bro_ was much better. She couldn't recall ever having uttered that word before in her life.

She watched Lucifer, fighting down the hope that was threatening to bubble up. _Maybe Amenadiel already found a cure. Maybe this nightmare was finally over._ Well, so much for not getting her hopes up. Lucifer was making useless _hm-hmm_ noises, giving her zero clues. She tried to read his expression, but he was frowning. _Dammit_.

Lucifer ended the conversation with, "We're on our way", which at least sounded promising.

Chloe put her hands on his arms, catching his eye. "Please tell me he found a cure", she commanded, as if he had a say in the matter.

"He said he might have found a possible solution, but you won't like it. He doesn't like it either."

Chloe took a deep breath, bracing herself. "What is it?"

"He didn't want to say over the phone."

Chloe rolled her eyes. "Oh, why is he always such a drama queen?"

She watched Lucifer's face light up in a big, unexpected smile. "Right? I thought I was the only one who saw it."

"No, no, he definitely loves a dramatic reveal. Not that you're any better."

"Hey", he said in a mock hurt voice, which was undermined by the fact that he was still beaming at her. 

Chloe thought for a moment about what Lucifer had said. "Well, it can't be that bad if he thinks you won't mind it."

"Given his opinion of me, I'm afraid it can be quite bad." 

Chloe nodded, wondering if Lucifer realized that the hurt tone had lingered through his last statement, ringing a lot more true.

"I have already swapped bodies with the devil himself, how bad can it be?" She hadn't realized that Linda from the reception desk was walking past behind her, apparently within earshot, considering the strange sideways glance she gave Chloe. Well, Lucifer had a reputation for being eccentric, so this could be considered a normal sentence that might leave his lips.

Lucifer tsked. "Don't tempt fate like that, detective, it'll come back to bite you in my ass."


	20. Chapter 20

The whole drive to Lux, Chloe kept wracking her brain about what Amenadiel might have to tell them. How far was she willing to go in order to fix this? Damn Amenadiel and his love of dramatic reveals. Why couldn't he just have showed up at the precinct? She ran her hand through her hair. It was too short, feeling nothing like her own hair. She glanced at Lucifer driving the car.

He seemed deep in thought, probably plagued by the same questions she was. What wouldn't she do to get out of this? She couldn't live her life like this permanently. First off, she didn't want to have to explain it to Trixie. She definitely didn't want to continue her life with everybody else thinking of her as Lucifer. She wasn't cut out to be an archangel. She didn't know the first thing about being an archangel.

Chloe made a decision. She would do whatever it took. Anything was better than staying like this permanently. Lucifer would hopefully see it the same way. He was probably feeling weak and helpless, stuck in a human body like this, when he was used to having his supernatural strength. She imagined mortality was quite scary if you weren't used to it your whole life. Although he had said something weird about having a mortality issue recently, what had that been about?

She was drawn out of her reverie when they stopped in front of Lux. _Moment of truth_ , she thought, stepping out of the car. _Oh God, what if it's something really horrible like a human sacrifice?_ She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to keep her panicky thoughts at bay. Damn Amenadiel. Of course she wouldn't agree to a human sacrifice. _What if you need to sacrifice a limb? Are you willing to give up a leg? An arm?_ She really needed to shut that panicky, and overly creative, voice in her head up, stat. If it were something like that, Amenadiel surely wouldn't have suggested it as a possible solution in the first place.

"Are you okay?", Lucifer asked hesitantly. She realized she'd been standing next to the car with her eyes closed for way too long. She opened them again, meeting his, or what went for _his_ eyes these days. She nodded, and they walked inside together.

* * *

Amenadiel was at the penthouse, as promised. He was sitting on the couch, with several books, and what looked like a bunch of old _parchments_ that should probably be in a museum somewhere, spread out on the table before him. Chloe didn't even want to know how they had come into his possession. Amenadiel glared at them with a serious expression that didn't help her growing anxiety one bit.

He looked up when they approached, his expression carefully blank. Chloe had a bad feeling about the whole thing already. 

"What did you find?", Lucifer asked without preamble, equally serious.

Amenadiel sighed, rubbing his hand over his face. "Mortals have a way of romanticizing what really happened, adding parts to the narritive, leaving out others-"

"Get to the point."

"According to what I found-", he made little air quotes with his fingers on the next part, "your souls have to be joined."

Chloe frowned. She looked to Lucifer, but judging by his blank expression, he didn't have any clue what his brother was referring to either. When Amenadiel didn't continue, Lucifer made an exasperated gesture with his hand. "Joined how?"

Amenadiel looked rather uncomfortable. "The mortal way", he elaborated. When both of them just kept staring at him, he continued, "At the hip." Silence. He jumped up, voice rising. "Apparently they fixed it by having sex, okay?"

His exclamation was met with more silence. Chloe breathed a sigh of relief. After all, she'd expected much worse.

"Sorry. There's a lot of unnecessarily flowery language about how their eternal bond and love for each other expanded beyond the mortal plane, their hearts beating in unison to the drum of the universe while- well, it doesn't matter, the gist is they had sex and it switched them back."

Lucifer nodded slowly. "Out of the question. Find another solution", he said, his tone clearly showing that Amenadiel should have known better than to even suggest it.

Chloe stared at him, feeling a little hurt that he would not even consider having sex with her to get them out of this nightmare. He had sex with all kinds of people on a daily basis. What was so terrible about sex with her that it was entirely _out of the question_? After all, he had been not-so-subtly hitting on her for a long time. What the hell was his problem?

Amenadiel seemed perplexed by his brother's reaction as well. Chloe had another thought.

"What exactly, umm, what would that entail?", she asked, feeling her cheeks starting to redden. 

Amenadiel looked at her, speechless. "Umm, what?", he asked dumbly.

"I mean-" Chloe felt the blush spread all over her face, reaching the tips of her ears. She was tempted to go into the bathroom and have a look in the mirror to find out what Lucifer looked like while he was blushing furiously. "I mean, what would count as having sex? If, say, one of us were to have an orgasm in the other's presence-" She stopped, too embarrassed to continue.

To his credit, Amenadiel looked almost as uncomfortable as she was feeling. "That might be enough?", he said hesitantly. It sounded like he was trying to convince himself, that he hoped it was true for her sake, rather than something he actually believed.

Chloe took a deep breath, pushing through the discomfort of having this conversation with Amenadiel of all people. "Let's say, _hypothetically_ , that would already have happened, and it didn't help, then what would be the next step?"

Amenadiel's eyes went wide in shock, his gaze flickering back and forth between her and Lucifer, as if he couldn't quite believe what he was hearing.

"It doesn't matter", Lucifer said dismissively, "because we're not doing it."

Amenadiel continued looking back and forth between the two of them. "Are you sure you haven't already switched back?"

Lucifer gave him a glare so intense it probably could have killed a small mammal on the spot. Chloe made a mental note to use that exact expression in the interrogation room in the future.

"Yes, of course we're sure. What kind of idiotic question is that?", Lucifer snapped at him.

"It's just that you are so adamant about not doing it. Are you sure you're not Chloe?"

Lucifer rolled his eyes so hard that Chloe feared it might leave lasting damage to her eyes. She turned to Amenadiel. "Could you give us a moment?"

Amenadiel's face brightened. "Gladly", he said, sounding relieved to have an excuse to get the hell out of there. He was gone in a heartbeat, the elevator doors closing behind him.

Chloe turned to Lucifer, trying really hard not to get angry. "What the _hell_ is your problem?", she snapped at him. Well, so much for that plan.

Lucifer sighed. "My father is behind this, I'm sure of it. And this is most certainly not what he had in mind. It probably won't even work."

That made sense, but her instincts told her that there was more to it than that. He was keeping something from her. There was another reason why he didn't want to try what was probably their best shot right now at getting out of this mess.

She could hardly believe the words that came out of her mouth next. "At this point, I'd be willing to give it a try. It can hardly make things any worse, right?"

Lucifer fidgeted, then pointed to the whiteboard standing next to the bar. "We still have other options."

She didn't get him. At all. Shouldn't he jump at the opportunity? "Why don't you want to have sex with me?", she blurted out, then winced. That's not how she'd meant to phrase it. It had come out rather hurt. "I'd have thought you of all people would be thrilled by the chance to have sex with yourself. And me. Kinda. You know what I mean."

She felt heat spreading across her face again. Since they had swapped she had probably blushed more as Lucifer than he had done in his whole life. She couldn't recall ever seeing him blush.

"Are you?", he asked darkly.

"What?"

"Are you thrilled by the chance to have sex with yourself?"

She hesitated, unsure what he was getting at. "No, but I'd be willing to-"

He lifted his hand, stopping her. "What you mean is that circumstances force you to do this, against your will, and better judgement. And that's never going to happen. Not while I have a say in the matter. _When_ we will have sex, it will be because you have succumbed to my charming personality, and want to enjoy yourself, and most certainly not because you were _forced_ to do it."

_Ah_. She'd underestimated him, she realized. She should have known his hesitation was out of concern for her. 

"What if it's the only way?", she asked, trying to view the whole thing pragmatically. It wasn't like it was a human sacrifice, after all. People had sex all the time. For much stupider reasons than this.

"We'll find another way", he stated resolutely, demonstratively walking over to the whiteboard. She sighed, conceding the point for the time being, and followed him.


	21. Chapter 21

_One week later_

Chloe sat at the dinner table with Trixie and Lucifer, musing about the adaptability of the human mind. That morning, she'd woken up, as usual, with an overwhelming sense of wrongness, yet the mind-numbing panic she'd felt every single time while waking up during the last week had been strangely absent.

It seemed her brain had gotten used to the weirdness of occupying the wrong body, supplying the fact to her almost immediately, and with a minimum of anxiety. The thought that she might be getting used to living in Lucifer's body caused a whole new wave of panic, though. She didn't want to get used to it. It wasn't supposed to be permanent.

She was adapting to waking up in Lucifer's bed in the penthouse as well. She split her nights between going to bed there and spending them on the couch in her own apartment, in spite of Lucifer's insistence that she should take the bed.

Things went surprisingly smoothly at work. Sometimes, she had to hold herself back, for example from taking over while they were in the interrogation room, but most days it only took her a moment to slip back into character, and continue the conversation as Lucifer. He was doing an even better job being her. Occasionally, if she hadn't know any better, she could have sworn it was herself talking. 

Then some _very_ inappropriate innuendo would slip past his filter, breaking the spell. Lucifer would cringe almost immediately, shooting her an apologetic look. Truth be told, it was a bit comforting to know that he still broke character sometimes. Everything else would have been creepy.

The so-called artifact expert had been no help. He didn't have anything to add to what Amenadiel had already found out. Chloe had spend quite some time praying during the last week but it had yet to show any effect. She had, on several occasions, tried to convince Lucifer to follow the only lead they had, arguing that it couldn't hurt to try it _once_ , but he was adamant in his refusal, leaving them with no options to pursue.

Lucifer spent more and more time at her place, and turned out to be surprisingly great with Trixie. Chloe was almost certain by now that the whole _spending time in each other's shoes to fix it_ idea had to be nonsense. He was now intimately familiar with every aspect of her life, and yet here they were, still in the wrong bodies. 

She shivered at the thought that she might have to try _really_ spending time as Lucifer, in case it was mutual understanding that was required. She'd much rather have sex with Lucifer than with a bunch of strangers, that much was certain. If only he would stop being so stubborn about it.

Chloe realized she'd been staring at her plate for way too long, and looked up, only to find Trixie scrutinizing her, a frown on her face. _Uh-oh_.

"I don't understand why you couldn't just tell me", Trixie said, pouting, looking back and forth between her and Lucifer. Chloe almost chocked on the piece of white wish she'd been about to swallow. She coughed violently, reaching for her glass, and took a quick gulp.

"What?", she croaked once she was certain she hadn't just murdered the devil with a piece of fish.

"You two are sneaking around all the time, thinking I won't notice, but I know what's going on. What I don't get is why you can't just be honest?"

She had directed that last bit at Lucifer, who was currently staring at her daughter blankly.

"Umm", he said, then closed his mouth again. He looked at Chloe, a plea for help in his eyes.

She took pity on him. "What, exactly, do you think is going on?"

Trixie crossed her arms in front of her chest, rolling her eyes in a manner that suggested they were insulting her intelligence. 

"Obviously, you two are _dating_."

Chloe closed her eyes for a moment, relieved. When she opened them again, she glanced over at Lucifer, and the two of them had one of those silent conversations, that for some reason she only ever managed to have with him. 

Lucifer surprised her by speaking first. "Things are ... complicated. We didn't want you to get hurt. I'm sorry we haven't been entirely truthful with you."

Trixie's expression softened a bit, but she still looked hurt. 

"I'm sorry, too. We should have known better than to keep things from you", Chloe added.

Trixie stuck her chin out, glaring, then she couldn't stop the smile from spreading over her face. "It's okay, I guess. Does this mean we get to hang out more and do cool stuff?", she asked Chloe, sounding excited.

Chloe glanced at Lucifer before replying, but couldn't read his expression. "Sure."

"Awesome", Trixie said, shifting her focus back to her food, as if everything that needed to be said had been said. Trixie had always liked Lucifer, so it shouldn't have come as a surprise to her that she accepted things so easily.

Trixie seemed to be so genuinely happy for them that it was a little painful to watch. What was she going to tell her once they switched again and things went back to the way they were before? That they had broken up? _What if you're stuck like this forever?_ , the scared part of her mind piped up.

* * *

Lucifer came out of Trixie's room after finishing her bedtime stories, a smile on his lips, his expression content, but surprised.

She raised her eyebrows, and he shook his head, still smiling. "She said she's happy that we're together. That you're more fun when I'm around, and that I make you happy." His tone took an a questioning note towards the end, as if he couldn't quite believe the words that were coming out of his mouth.

His expression turned serious on the next words. "Although she did express her concern over how weird both of us have been acting this past week and her hope that we'll be more ourselves again now that everything is out in the open."

"She's truly a marvelous little human", he added after a moment, voice filled with wonder.

He was in such a good mood that Chloe almost decided not to bring up the topic they'd been fighting over every single night for the past week. Almost. While he'd been busy taking Trixie to bed, she'd decided that a chance in tactics was in order. She was obviously getting nowhere with her current appoach.

"Listen, Lucifer, we need to disc-"

Lucifer groaned loudly, interrupting her. He lifted his hands up in a gesture of exasperation. "Must we do this tiresome exercise every evening? The answer is no."

"What if I told you I actually _wanted_ to do it?", she asked, voice carefully neutral.

"Then I would say you are lying to me", he replied darkly.

"Fine, okay, maybe I don't want to do it like this, but, you know- we- us-", she gestured wildly in between them, at a loss for words. He just continued staring at her, expression guarded.

Chloe sighed. _No time like the present_. "Maybe having sex with you is not such a hardship for me as you might think", she muttered, her cheeks colouring once more. Lucifer frowned, clearly having a hard time believing her. She'd been afraid of this. It would have to be full disclosure, nothing less than the whole truth, if she wanted to have a shot at him believing her.

"Alright, you must know that I'm attracted to you, yeah? Do you really think what we did in the shower-" She felt the blush creep all the way to the tips of her ears again. "-was just _scientific curiosity_? That I would have done the same if I had gotten stuck in some random dude's body?"

His frown deepened, and he looked very confused. That was apparently what he had been thinking all this time. That it had been a matter of mere curiosity from her side, nothing more. Chloe sighed again. She rubbed her hand over her eyes, summoning her courage. This was the only way to get them out of this mess.

"I like you. You make everything so much more interesting. I haven't gotten bored once since we met-" He chuckled, starting to say something, but she lifted her hand, silencing him. "Let me finish. What I'm trying to say is that even before this whole mess happened I might have-", she took a deep breath, "-I _did_ think about what it would be like, you know, the two of us, like- like _that_. And it was a tempting thought. But you know, we are working together, and I wasn't sure if you were even interested in anything serious, and for it to be a one time thing that would have unnecessarily complicated our working relationship, so I never acted on- what?" He had cocked his head to the side, a disbelieving grin spreading across his face.

"Detective, are you saying you fantasized about us having sex and you _liked it_?"

Damn him and his bluntness. She'd have expected him to sound smug, but instead he sounded like he couldn't quite believe that he had heard her correctly. Well, there was nothing for it now.

"Yes", she admitted, voice defiant.

He looked at her in wonder for a moment, then his expression darkened again. He shook his head slowly. "Truly, detective, I wouldn't have expected you to go to such lengths as to lie about something like that."

Chloe stared at him, mouth agape, anger bubbling up inside her. What was his _goddamn_ problem? Not only did he refuse to try their only way out of this nightmare, now he was accusing her of lying after she'd just kind of poured her heart out to him?

"Listen, _pal_ ", she said, voice dangerously cold, "I don't know what your problem is-", she advanced on him, poking him in the chest. She only realized belatedly that that was a rather inappropriate move in their current state. "-but everything I just told you was nothing less than the truth, and I'd appreciate if you showed me a little more respect."

She realized that she'd backed him up against the wall and was towering above him, giving off very threatening vibes. She stepped back quickly, muttering, "Sorry".

He just stared at her, opening his mouth several times as if to say something, then closed it again.

"You're attracted to me", he repeated, mostly to himself, "You like me. You would have considered a relationship if you'd thought I was interested?" He sounded doubtful, even though he was just repeating what she'd already told him.

"Maybe? I thought- I thought there was more to you than your playboy persona. I'd never have guessed how _much_ more, though."

"You like me?", he repeated again, and it was cute in a way, how hung up he was on the notion. He seemed much younger in that moment. She would very much have liked to see his real expression, on his real face.

"Yes, you idiot", she said, voice soft.

His expression changed, a big smile spreading over his face. She decided she needed to smile like that more often in the future. It completely transformed him, making him look much younger, and more beautiful, which was a weird thing to be thinking while he was in her body. Maybe she had been stuck being Lucifer for too long.

She waited for him to say something, but he seemed to be speechless for once. She cleared her throat, suddenly nervous.

"So, does that mean you've changed your mind, about- you know- the thing", she gestured vaguely with her hand, blushing again. It really was more or less a permanent state for her nowadays.

Lucifer smiled. "I'm not sure how you plan to have sex with me if you can't even make yourself say the word."

Chloe swallowed. "Okay. Fine. Have you changed your mind about having sex?"

For once, he seemed to actually consider her request instead of immediately getting angry. He shook his head slightly, unsure. "It doesn't change the fact that you are weirded out by the idea of having sex with yourself, does it?"

For a second, she considered lying to him, just to get this whole thing over with already, but then she changed her mind. She sighed. "Well, it's not ideal. It's not how I would have wanted it. But it's still going to be me and you, which is the important part, right?"

He gazed at her for a long moment, standing completely still. His expression was unreadable. Chloe tried her best not to fidget under the scrutiny. When he finally moved, it was to make a small shake of his head.

"I need to think about it", he said.

Chloe groaned inwardly, trying not to be too disappointed. At least she was finally making progress with him. It was on the table now. He just needed a little more convincing.


	22. Chapter 22

Chloe sat at one of the bar stools in the penthouse, staring at the whiteboard, deep in thought.

She'd never expected to find herself in this situation. Well, obviously, she'd never, in a million years, have foreseen that she would swap bodies with the devil, but that wasn't the unexpected development she was puzzling over at the moment.

She had to seduce Lucifer. That, in and of itself, was something she hadn't ever counted on having to do.

Truth be told, the art of seduction wasn't really one of her strong suits. It certainly wasn't something she had a lot of practice with. Whenever it was required for a sting operation or some such, she usually treated it like an acting job, taking on a completely different personality. She didn't think she would have much luck with Lucifer with that approach.

And as if that weren't bad enough, she would have to seduce him _while in his body_. At least, he was attracted to guys. But that didn't necessarily mean he was attracted to _himself_ , did it?

He came across as narcissistic when people first met him, but Chloe had spend a lot of time with him, even more so over the last couple of days, and she suspected that his egoistic and narcissistic act was actually just a cover for something else entirely. He wasn't as in love with himself as he claimed to be.

She sighed, rubbing her hand over her eyes. What it came down to was that she didn't have the first clue how to go about seducing Lucifer. The whole idea seemed ridiculous to her, at best. She could try the rather crude approach he'd attempted early on in their partnership, and just take off her clothes while waiting for him. If nothing else, that would at least make her intentions unmistakably clear.

She started actually reading the board, thinking that her problem might not be that she didn't know how to seduce Lucifer but that she herself wasn't entirely sold on the idea of having sex with him in their current state. Lucifer often appeared completely oblivious to other people's feelings, but in this as well, she suspected that the truth was quite the opposite. It was as if he was picking up on her hesitation, and trying to protect her from something she didn't really want to do.

Which was nice in a way, but it also meant they were stuck like this, which was something she didn't want to have to deal with either. It came down to the choice of the lesser evil. And it wasn't like she'd never thought about having sex with Lucifer. She just had issues with doing it from this perspective.

Chloe took a deep breath, making up her mind. She would take the first step, to show him that she'd overcome her doubts and that she was ready to do this. She'd pretend to be confident about her decision, and maybe it would be enough to convince them both.

* * *

Chloe paced back and forth next to the bar, getting more nervous with every passing minute. Great. So much for showing confidence. Lucifer would be here any minute now, and she was doubting her decision more and more. Maybe she should just drive to the precinct herself, to have a bit more time to think things through.

_You're stalling. Nothing is ever going to happen if you keep going like this. You'll be stuck like this forever._ She cringed at the thought. 

The elevator doors opened and Lucifer walked in, looking great, as usual. He'd gotten into the habit of wearing her hair down, which, while less practical than the ponytail, created a kind of sophisticated look, especially in combination with the clothes he picked out. It was very much Lucifer, while still in the boundaries of something she'd actually wear.

Chloe took a deep breath, then stood up to meet him halfway, purposefully striding across the room, projecting more confidence than she actually felt. She stopped right in front of him, licking her lips.

He stopped dead in his tracks as well, raising an eyebrow at her.

"I'm going to kiss you", she stated without hesitation, voice confident. She gave him a moment to voice any objections, but he remained quiet. Before giving herself another chance to change her mind, Chloe closed the small distance between them, putting her hand on his face, well _her_ face, tilting his head up for a kiss. 

It was very chaste, merely a peck of their lips. Chloe tried again, and this time Lucifer responded, opening his mouth. Their tongues touched for the briefest second, then Chloe pulled back, shaking her head.

"Wow, that was _weird_ ", she blurted out without thinking. "Like kissing a woman."

Lucifer smiled fondly at her, a sarcastic response written all over his face, which he for some reason held back for once.

"I mean, for starters, I'm not supposed to be taller than you, and my tongue feels all weird, and your tongue, and my lips, I mean, your lips- it's weird", she conceded, sounding defeated at having to admit that he might have a point about them not doing this.

She met his eyes again, and there was clearly an _I told you so_ on the tip of his tongue, but again he didn't voice it.

"Have you ever kissed a woman before?", he asked instead.

Chloe drew her hand through her hair, trying not to despair at the very real prospect of having to spend the rest of her life as Lucifer. "Yeah, sure, but not _kissed_ kissed. You know, not like that, not with the intent of it going further."

She sighed, admitting defeat. "It's not so much that it's a woman, but that it's _me_ , meanwhile I'm not myself and I've never done it like- like this. It's just very new, and strange, and I somehow feel like an insecure teenager all over again."

Lucifer's brows knitted together as he puzzled over the problem. "Do you think it would help if you were blindfolded? Reducing the weirdness of watching yourself?"

Chloe only gave this a moment's thought before shaking her head. "No, I feel more comfortable when I'm in control of what's happening."

Lucifer nodded, as if he'd already expected this answer. Chloe was feeling frustrated, and she lashed out at the only possibe target. "And you're not helping either!"

Lucifer looked affronted. "Me? What did I do?"

"Well, for one, you haven't given me one clue how you feel about the whole thing! I've been trying to be completely honest with you, but I don't even know if you're even- if you're even interested!"

"If I'm even _interested_?", he repeated incredulously.

"Exactly. How would I even know, since you haven't given me _anything_ to work with", she finished, fuming.

Lucifer briefly put the tips of his index fingers on the bridge of his nose, then lifted up his hands in a gesture of defeat. "You want to know how I feel. Okay. Let me paint you a picture, detective. Every night, I lie awake, using all of my considerable will power to keep my hands still, and above the covers. I have the utmost respect for you, and I would never to anything without your consent. But, _bloody hell_ , if I haven't been thinking about it. Every time I set foot into that damnable shower. Every time I undress. Every time I lie alone in bed. It's driving me insane. I couldn't have thought of a better form of torture, and believe me, I am somewhat of an expert on the matter."

They were facing each other, both of them glaring at the other. Chloe imagined Lucifer, lying in her bed, battling with his self-constraint, trying not to touch her body. It send an unexpected shiver of arousal through her. She'd been so preoccupied with how she'd been feeling that she hadn't really stopped to consider his side. Which was quite ironic, given that she currently was _him_.

"What if I gave it to you?", she said, suddenly feeling much calmer.

"What?", he said, confused.

"My consent. What if I gave it to you?", she clarified.

He just stared at her, much like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming car.

"I think it would make things easier for me if we don't jump right in, but take it slowly. Like if I wouldn't have to do anything at first, if maybe I just watched you, and then when I feel more comfortable with the whole thing, we can go all the way."

Lucifer continued staring at her, his mouth dropping open. He closed it again, swallowing. His lack of reply was making her nervous. "Unless you don't want to do that. Sorry, forget it, it was a stupid idea", she back-pedaled.

Lucifer blinked a couple of times. "You want to watch me touch myself?"

Chloe blushed again. She waved her hand dismissively. "Nevermind, forget I said anything, let's move on."

He cocked his head to the side, his open expression closing off again. "I can assure you I can control myself, detective. You don't have to do this out of some sense of obligation for what we did in the shower. You don't owe me anything."

Chloe groaned. Why did he have to be so damn selfless all the time? Now she'd have to reveal more than she'd meant to _yet again_. "It wouldn't be- you know- just for you", she said, blushing furiously.

Lucifer raised an eyebrow, his dark expression replaced by curiousity. Chloe was starting to get whiplash from his sudden mood swings.

"Maybe, I could find it- interesting, to see you touch _me_ , as in, you know, my body, and witness how it affects you", she added hesitantly. She felt a sensation she'd grown accustomed to by now. She _most certainly_ found the idea interesting.

A big smile spread over Lucifer's face. "Really?", he said disbelievingly, as if he expected her to take it back.

"Yes. Okay? Yes." She gave him a hesitant smile, then quickly walked away in the direction of the bathroom.

After several moments, Lucifer called after her, sounding worried. "Everything alright?"

Chloe leaned out of the bathroom, smiling. "Just wanted to check something. You really do look adorable when you're blushing furiously."


	23. Chapter 23

Chloe stood with her back against against the wall, regarding Lucifer, who was perched on the edge of the bed, looking about as nervous as she felt.

"I don't bite, you know", he said, indicating the empty bed beside him, "unless requested to do so, naturally."

Chloe took a tentative step forward, then stopped again. "I think I'm good here, thanks."

Lucifer rolled his eyes. "Suit yourself." He looked at her expectantly. Chloe cleared her throat. She was doubting her decision to do this in the penthouse. She'd probably have felt more at ease in her own bedroom.

"What?", she all but snapped when Lucifer just continued staring at her.

"What would you like me to do?", he asked. His voice took on a seductive tone, his posture changed in the blink of an eye. He effortlessly slipped into his charming playboy persona, in spite of currently inhabiting her body. Chloe shook her head.

"Well, for one, don't do that."

"Do what?", he asked, raising one eyebrow while giving her a seductive look. Chloe wasn't sure about the effectiveness of it on her own face.

"I'd like to do this with the real you."

"Yeah, I'm not sure if you've noticed, but that's not really on the table at the moment."

Chloe sighed. "Yes, obviously, I just meant- I don't want you to change, okay? Just be yourself."

He pondered that for a moment, then nodded. "What would you like me to do?", he repeated, his voice back to normal. Well, in this case, normal for her voice.

"Can't you just-", she made a vague motion with her hands, "do it?"

He smiled, shaking his head. "I would much prefer for you to guide me. Pretty please?", he said, cocking his head to the side.

Chloe felt a strange tingling sensation in the pit of her stomach. Well, she _did_ tell him that she prefers to be in control, didn't she?

"Why don't you start by taking my top off?", she said, fighting down the feeling of weirdness that was creeping up on her again.

Lucifer chuckled. "We're going to get very confused."

Chloe considered that for a moment. "How about, for the time being, I get to have my body back, at least when it comes to pronouns?"

Lucifer smiled. She could see that he was trying to appear comfortable and at ease, but he was radiating a nervous restlessness that resonated very much with what she herself was feeling. 

"Works for me", he said, pulling her top over his head in one swift motion, looking at her expectantly.

Chloe swallowed. "Make yourself comfortable", she instructed, voice surprisingly steady. Lucifer did as he was told, scooting up further on the massive bed, lying down flat on his back. He propped his head up on a cushion, keeping eye contact with her. There was a heat in his gaze now that went straight to her groin. She took a deep breath.

"I would like you to touch my breasts. Maybe massage them a little."

Lucifer gave her a last questioning look, making sure that she really was on board with this. She nodded. He slowly lifted her hands, encircling both her breasts, taking his time to massage them, slowly kneading his way towards her nipples. He never broke eye contact with her. 

Chloe made a small gasp. She felt herself getting hard already and they had barely begun. Lucifer lightly brushed her thumbs over her nipples, then pinched the left one. He finally broke off their intense staring match to look at her breasts. "Beautiful", he mumbled, and Chloe shuddered slightly at his praise.

"Take off my pants", she said, surprised how deep her, _Lucifer's_ , voice had gotten.

Lucifer looked like he was about to complain, probably to comment once more on her disregard of the art of foreplay, but then he just complied, unbuttoning her pants, slowly pushing them down. Chloe stepped closer to the bed, captivated by Lucifer's every movement.

He smiled at her, slowly drawing her hands over the expanse of her stomach and back to her breasts. Chloe sat down at the foot of the bed, watching him. He threw his head back, moaning. The sound caused an unexpected rush of warmth. 

"I want you to-", she cleared her throat, feeling self-conscious. She normally preferred not to talk quite so much about what happened in the bedroom. Especially while it was happening. "I want your hand _there_. Start slowly, only a light touch with the tip of your finger. Draw tiny circles."

He opened his mouth, and she half-expected a sarcastic comment about her being too embarrassed to name her own body parts. Instead he just closed his mouth again with a snap, and did as he was told.

Her eyes followed his hand, but she could feel his burning stare on her face. On the first touch, he made a choked off noise, half-way between a moan and a gasp. Whereas his earlier moan had appeared at least partially a show for her, this one seemed to have taken him completely by surprise.

Chloe looked up to see him frowning, a look of shock on his face. "Feels very different, doesn't it?", she asked quietly, and he nodded absent-mindedly. "Tell me how it feels", she demanded, needing to know what he was experiencing, how all of this felt from his perspective. Was he as overwhelmed as she'd been in the shower?

"Amazing", he said, staring down at his ( _her_ ) hand. "Like heat and pressure slowly building inside of me, _everywhere_."

"Now slip a finger inside", she instructed, voice impossibly deep. The feeling of her own arousal in his body was starting to distract her. She'd felt it several times before, but it was still novel. Especially combined with the thought that they might go further this time, that she might get to have another mind-blowing experience like in the shower. At least here the wings wouldn't break anything.

Watching him was affecting her more than she'd have thought possible. It was easy to imagine the real Lucifer doing these things to her body while she was truly herself. He picked up speed, making a frustrated noise in the back of his throat. She met his eyes, raising an eyebrow in question.

"I'd much prefer to be doing this with my tongue. To the real you", he said, voice seductive. Chloe felt a shiver run through her. She realized that she'd started rubbing her hand in small circles over her, _Lucifer's_ chest. He glanced up at her, desire written all over his face. "Take it off", he instructed, indicating the shirt she was wearing with a look. "Touch me."

He'd been right about the pronouns. She was completely lost by now. Did he want her to touch him, or herself? She hastily unbuttoned the dress shirt she was wearing and slipped it over her shoulders, throwing it carelessly to the side. She began moving Lucifer's broad hands over his chest, down to his abs, revelling in the feeling of them on his muscular body. 

Lucifer watched her with a heated gaze, hands moving quickly. His hips started lifting off the mattress in short thrusts, and he closed his eyes, throwing his head back. 

Chloe felt a sudden determination, and grabbed both of his wrists, stopping him. Lucifer gazed up at her in question. He looked completely wrecked, hair a sweaty mess sticking out to all sides, cheeks flushed, pupils blown.

"Let's do this properly", Chloe breathed, for the first time feeling a slight anticipation at the thought, rather than only dread. Lucifer withdrew his hands, placing them back on the mattress, waiting for her to take the initiative. She quickly unbuttoned his suit pants and slipped them off, followed by his underwear.

"Do you have a condom?"

He nodded. "But we don't need it. I can't carry human diseases and we're not compatible, genetically speaking." His words were factual, but his breath was coming in quick, short gasps, and his skin was flushed, betraying his state of arousal.

Chloe took a moment to find her courage, then she moved on top of him on the bed, easily hovering above him with her weight on her hands. "Are you sure?", Lucifer asked, breathless.

"As sure as I'll ever be", she said, trying to focus on how she'd felt while watching Lucifer touch her body, rather than on the absurd idea of having sex with herself. "You?"

He nodded, and she pushed in slowly, carefully. She met Lucifer's eyes, seeing the same emotions reflected there that she was feeling. Shock. Wonder, excitement, desire. 

They found a slow rhythm, both of them still adjusting to the unfamiliar sensation. The purely physical feeling of it was amazing, unlike anything she'd ever experienced before. There was a building pressure, an anticipation, taking her higher and higher with every thrust.

Yet it didn't cancel out the feeling that she was experiencing it from the wrong perspective, that the world was askew, and things weren't how they were supposed to be. Lucifer moaned, and the sound brought her back into the moment. It was incredible to think that she could bring him pleasure in a way that he'd never experienced before in his long life.

She sped up her movements, already feeling her release approaching. Lucifer started moving his hips up to meet each thrust. There was a sudden moment of dizziness, then her perspective changed, and she was looking up at Lucifer. A heartbeat later, the same feeling again, like reality blurring for the blink of an eye, and she was back on top, looking down at herself.

Another heartbeat, and her perspective changed again, her body feeling completely different. On every beat, they changed. It was incredibly dizzying, while also unbelievingly arousing to feel the sensations from both perspectives almost at the same time. The sensory input was threatening to overwhelm her. It was like having sex on an upside down rollercoaster.

They swapped again, and this time something else happened. It felt like she was brushing past Lucifer's essence, his soul, when they changed. It was only the briefest of moments, yet it took her breath away. When they swapped again a second later, she reached out to him with her mind, searching for him.

It was like crashing into an ocean of light. He was an incomprehensible, timeless being, endless, a piece of the divine origin of the universe. The part of her that still possessed conscious thought was saddened to know that she could never be more than an ant to him, that they were insurmountably different in ways she couldn't even conceive off.

She slammed back into her own body, gasping. She barely managed to take a breath before she was torn out again, brushing once more past the ocean of light that was Lucifer. She felt lost in the vastness, tiny, meaningless, merely a speck of dust, until she reached the very center, and at its core, to her surprise, there was a being much like her, insecure, scared, lonely, desperate to connect.

She reached out to that part of him that she could comprehend, and for the blink of an eye they were truly connected. She suddenly understood him with perfect and utter clarity. She experienced, without the shadow of a doubt, the extent of his feelings for her, and what he would do to protect her. She felt his surprise when he, in turn, recognized the same feelings in her.

For the blink of an eye, everything made sense. She was filled with light, and certainty, and an incredible feeling of closeness. Then she was drawn back to reality with a dizzying suddenness, crashing to awareness in her own body, Lucifer on top of her. She tried to hold on to the memory of him, but the details were already fading from her mind, too incomprehensible for conscious thought.

Both of them came at the same time, and while it was quite possibly the most mind-blowing orgasm of her life, it paled in comparison to the feeling they'd shared before, being connected so deeply that it had been impossible to tell where one of them ended and the other began.

Lucifer stared at her, breathing heavily, eyes wide in shock. A similar expression was probably mirrored on her own face. _Her_ face. Chloe hesitantly lifted her hand, touching it to her cheek, a small smile spreading on her face. She was back where she belonged.


	24. Chapter 24

Chloe stood on a massive balcony, looking down at the ocean extending all the way to the horizon below her. Their latest crime scene was a spectacular beachfront property. She watched the midday sun reflect off the calm water. _An ocean of light_ , she thought, frowning, unable to place the reference.

She closed her eyes, breathing in the ocean air. It had been nearly three weeks since things turned back to normal, since she was truly herself again. She'd been almost able to convince herself that none of it really happened, that maybe she'd just had a psychotic break.

She wasn't proud of the way she'd handled things, after. But it had just been too much to take in. She'd all but fled from the penthouse, exchanging barely more than a word with Lucifer. She hadn't seeked him out since. He, in turn, hadn't shown up at the precinct, or at any of the crime scenes. They hadn't so much as texted each other in the past three weeks.

The details of what had happened were blurry in her mind, probably due to her brain trying to protect her sanity, but two things were excruciatingly clear to her. One, that Lucifer was the devil. He wasn't an imposter, or deluded, or playing pretend as a coping strategy. He was the real, biblical _devil_. And secondly, that he was head over heels in love with her. 

Chloe didn't remember much about the climax of her out-of-body experience, but she did remember with perfect clarity the feelings washing over her, coming from Lucifer. She couldn't have been further away from being just another scratch in his bedpost as she'd feared. He was in love with her.

And what she should have done is stay, and talk to him. But instead she'd fled, overwhelmed. By the fact that the devil was in love with her. By the extent of his feelings for her. By the whole mind-blowing experience of swapping bodies with him. She'd fled, and hadn't worked up the courage to return since.

Chloe was well aware that Trixie wanted very badly to ask her about what had happened between her and Lucifer, but was giving her space. She was so grown up already, somehow understanding that Chloe needed time to work through things on her own. But she couldn't put it off indefinitely. At some point, she would have to tell Trixie _something_. She had no clue what that was going to be, though. That she and Lucifer had broken up? That her mother was too much of a coward to give Lucifer a chance?

It was a lot to take in, that was for sure. But it had been weeks, and she was no closer to making up her mind. What was holding her back from talking to him? Why, in all this time, hadn't he made a single effort to talk to her? Was he giving her space to figure things out? Or was he appalled at having feelings for a mortal, and simply didn't want to see her?

"Detective?", a voice called from behind her, bringing her back to the present, where a murder needed to be solved.

* * *

Chloe attempted again to read the same paragraph she'd been staring at for the last ten minutes. She gave up with a sigh, rubbing her hand over her eyes. She needed to read this case file, but her thoughts kept returning to Lucifer. Her desk at the precinct felt somehow empty without his presence. Which was silly. She'd worked at this desk long before Lucifer, and it really had no right to keep reminding her of his absence.

She had to go talk to him, she decided. There was no way around it. She'd put it off long enough. She'd told herself that she needed time to figure out her own feelings first, time to ponder the implications of getting involved with a _celestial being_ , time to process what had happened to her. She realized now that she'd been using these things as an excuse. The real problem was that she was scared to put herself out there, to lay her heart bare, only for him to reject her.

She sat up straight, taking a deep breath. She wouldn't let her fears control her life. She would go talk to him, and put this thing to rest, one way or another. If he didn't want anything to do with her, so be it. At least she would know for sure. She would talk to him tonight. She stood up, filled with a sudden determination. No, she would go talk to him right now, before she had a chance to change her mind.

Ella approached her desk, waving a case file. She opened her mouth to say something, then took a closer look at Chloe's face, closing it again. She veered off to the side, mumbling "I'll come back another time" in passing. Chloe paid her no mind. She grabbed her keys and hurried out of the precinct, heading to Lux.

* * *

Chloe stood in the elevator, nervously shifting her weight from foot to foot. She had no idea what she was going to say.

The doors opened, but she remained frozen on the spot for so long that the doors closed in her face. She rolled her eyes, mostly at herself, and pushed the button again, actually stepping out this time.

The first thing she noticed was a beautiful, melancholic melody. She didn't recognize the song, but she felt immediately drawn to it. It enveloped her in such a heavy feeling of sadness and loss that it was almost a physical sensation.

Lucifer sat at the piano, looking horrible. His hair was tousled, his shirt half-way unbuttoned, and it looked like he hadn't shaved for days. There were dark circles under his eyes. In front of him on the piano was a long row of empty whiskey bottles. Yet he never missed a note, his fingers sure and steady as he drew the wistful melody from the instrument.

There was a sudden defeaning silence in the room. Chloe looked up from Lucifer's fingers, which were now hovering frozen over the keys, to meet his eyes. He was staring at her like he was seeing a ghost, mouth slightly agape, expression disbelieving. It was obvious that he hadn't expected to ever see her again. Chloe felt a disturbingly painful pang in her chest at the thought.

She waited for him to say something, maybe to tell her to get the hell out, after not hearing a word from her for so long, but he just sat there, unmoving. Chloe's heart was thundering in her chest, all of her earlier decisiveness evaporating now that she was actually face to face with him.

Chloe took a deep breath, fighting down the urge to flee. She wasn't sure if she could work up the courage to come back again. Instead of retreating back into the elevator, she stepped forward, slowly moving to sit next to him on the bench at the piano. He moved aside sluggishly, making room for her. He was still staring at her as if she couldn't possibly be real. 

She tentatively started playing. Chloe didn't have much of a choice, seeing as it was pretty much all she remembered from her piano lessons, but she probably would have picked the song anyway. It was a reminder of a moment shared between them, when things were less complicated.

Lucifer drew his hands back, staring at hers on the keys as if he still couldn't believe all of this was happening. He hesitated so long that she feared he might not join her, might reject her peace offering, but finally his fingers moved back to the keys, accompanying her.

They played for several moments without either of them saying anything, the atmosphere tense. Then Lucifer missed a note, then another, then he stopped playing entirely. When he drew his hands back from the piano, Chloe reacted without thinking, grabbing his right hand with her left, stopping the movement.

Both of them stared at her hand on top of his for a long moment. Chloe remembered how it had been like when his long fingers had been hers, when she'd felt things as Lucifer felt them now. She remembered blinding light, feeling safe, and protected, and _loved_. She remembered the immeasurable feeling of loss when that moment had ended.

Lucifer turned his hand around beneath hers, intertwining their fingers. Both of them were still staring down at their joined hands, refusing to meet the other's eyes. Chloe was close enough to smell the alcohol on his breath.

"I'm sorry", she said, apropos of nothing, surprising them both. She looked down at the keys of the piano when she continued, not trusting herself to be able to say the things she needed to say if she looked him in the eye. "I shouldn't have run without talking to you. I shouldn't have run at all. It was just a lot to take in, and I needed- some time, and space, to digest what happened."

There was a long moment of silence while she waited for him to say something. The grip of his hand in hers tightened when he finally spoke, voice raw. "I'm sorry, too. I never meant for you to get hurt. I wish you'd never gotten dragged into that part of my life." He hesitated, his voice turning bitter on his next words. "I'm sorry you had to see that side of me."

Chloe frowned, finally looking up from their hands to meet his eyes. "I'm not", she stated, "I'm not claiming to understand what happened to us, or what it all means, but I've come to the conclusion over the past couple of weeks that it doesn't matter. What matters is that we're better together, and I don't want to lose that." _I don't want to lose you_ , she didn't manage to say out loud.

It was truly marvelous to see the sad and confused expression on his face turn into a hesitant smile. "Does that mean I- I can come back? You'll let me work cases with you again?"

Chloe hesitated as she considered how her behaviour over the last weeks must have come across to Lucifer. Running away, avoiding him, without so much as an explanation. He'd never contacted her because he'd thought she didn't want anything to do with him anymore. She'd made a royal mess of things.

She saw Lucifer tense once more, his smile slowly faltering at her hestitation. "Of course you can", she quickly reassured him, "I never meant to exclude you from my life. I- yes, maybe it's good to start with that. Work cases together again."

"Start with?", he repeated, the look of confusion back on his face. Chloe remembered the loneliness, the isolation, she'd felt from him when they were joined, and suddenly she felt an overpowering urge to give him a hug. So she did. It was a bit of an awkward position for a hug, next to each other on the bench, their hands still intertwined, but she leaned her head against his shoulder, drawing her free hand around him.

He froze again, tense in her embrace, then he suddenly melted into it with a sigh. Chloe smiled, feeling some of the constant restlessness she'd felt over the last weeks drain away. She should have talked to him much sooner. She hardly recalled what she'd been so afraid of. He was still the same person he'd always been.

She wasn't sure how much time had passed, when they finally pulled back, each looking at the other hesitantly, unsure what to do next.

The tension became too much, and she looked away, her gaze landing on the bottles on the piano. "Looks like you've been having fun. Are you sure you want to go back to doing boring police work?" She said it jokingly, but she was well aware of her insecurities bleeding through in the question. What could a being like him ever want with her?

Lucifer barked out a short laugh. "Yeah, I've been having a _hell_ of a time." He looked down at himself, then started buttoning up his dress shirt. He sighed. "I'm afraid I need to make amends to Maze and Linda. I've been rather poor company recently." He drew his hand through his hair in an effort to straighten the mess out, but only achieving to ruffle it up even further.

He somehow managed to look utterly adorable with his beard stubble and his hair sticking out in all directions. It was very difficult to see him as the biblical devil in that moment. Scratch that, Chloe had problems all the time aligning how she saw Lucifer with how the devil was supposed to be. The two just wouldn't fit together, no matter how she looked at it.

"I'm sure it wasn't that bad", Chloe said, voice teasing. Lucifer gave her a _look_ indicating that it had been, in fact, that bad, and then some. He shook his head slightly, frowning. "I thought you had enough of me, with everything that happened." He aimed for levity, but couldn't hide the concern from his voice.

Chloe stood up, smiling, holding out her hand to him. "You got it almost right." He took her hand, standing up as well, his frown deepening. "I had quite enough of being you, not being _around_ you. Big difference."

He barked out another short laugh, even though what she'd said hadn't been all that funny.

Chloe reluctantly let go of his hand and started walking towards the elevator. She stopped when she realized he wasn't following, and turned around. "You coming?"

Lucifer drew his hand through his unkempt hair again, looking down at his disheveled clothes. "I think I better had a shower first."

Chloe was unexpectedly hit with an all-to-vivid memory of another shower. She swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry. She stood there frozen for a few moments, blinking slowly.

"Right. Of course. Yes. I just got a new case. Do you want to- maybe, if you feel like it-", she stopped, wondering why she was still so afraid of rejection. He had given her ample evidence that he liked being around her, that he'd only kept his distance because he thought it's what she wanted, and still, for some reason, she expected him to shoot her down. "See you at the precinct?", she settled on in the end, voice hopeful.

"Yes", he said, a bright smile spreading over his features, as if she'd just told him he'd won the lottery. "Wouldn't miss it for the world."

She returned his smile, and they stood there for a moment, grinning at each other like idiots. Then Chloe cleared her throat, nodded, and made herself turn around and walk away. 

When the doors closed behind her, she took a deep breath. She realized that she was still grinning from ear to ear. It felt like a massive weight had been lifted from her chest. They were going to be okay.


End file.
